Der Spiegel - Changes Of Success In Copenhagen "Headed Towards Zero" Per FT Deutschland

[hatrack]

EDIT

Reactions to the meeting varied widely. In concluding the session, Ban said: "This summit has put fresh wind in our sails." Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who will host the summit in Copenhagen, said more tepidly that it was "a step in the right direction." But Obama's failure to spell out any concrete proposals left some angry. "We are really very, very disappointed about what Obama said," Thomas Henningsen, the climate coordinator for Greenpeace International, told Reuters. "It is really more of a step back than a step forward."

"Someone must have switched the coffee to decaf at today's UN climate summit," Oxfam International spokesman David Waskow told the Associated Press. "Heads of state did not seem to have the necessary energy to deliver the drive we need heading into Copenhagen."

Many think that Obama's ongoing battle to overhaul the US health care system is consuming all his time and energy. In June, he did succeed in getting the US's first regulation on capping carbon emissions through the US House of Representatives. But the Senate has chosen to push back any handling of climate issues until after the rancorous debate on health care has been settled. Observers feel that if the US doesn't have climate legislation in place by December, it won't be able to take any concrete stances in Copenhagen. And without US leadership, many believe that the meeting will fail to create an overall, detailed accord and that, at best, it will produce a framework for further talks somewhere down the line.

EDIT

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The chances of having something come out of Copenhagen that is more than just a non-binding framework agreement sank even lower on Tuesday -- and they're headed toward zero. For this reason, it would be best to push the conference back until the US is prepared to take real steps in the negotiation process. Otherwise, there's a great risk that Copenhagen will result in a formulaic compromise that blocks any real progress for years to come because the major climate offenders can just hide behind them."

EDIT

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,650809,00.html

[kristopher]

1. " Per FT Deutschland"....?

I'm uncertain, but is the Financial Times of Germany a good source of news on the issue of climate change? In general, these mainline financial publications tend to be obstructionist on the topic. This article reminds me of the rhetoric coming from the rightwing here declaring that "health care reform is dead" or "we need to push the restart button and go back to square one".

Delay, discourage and defeat...