A climate deal has been reached between President Obama and China, but poor countries, who maintain the deal was nonbinding and set no overall target for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, were dissatisfied. German Cancellor Angela Merkel had "mixed feelings" (Yahoo! News) about the outcome -- the U.S.'s promise of $30 billion in emergency aid in the next three years and $100 billion a year by 2020.
"[It's] not fair, not ambitious, and not legally binding," offered Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace. "The job of world leaders is not done. Today they failed to avert catastrophic climate change. [...] We have seen a year of crises, but today it is clear that the biggest one facing humanity is a leadership crisis."
The five-nation agreement among the United States, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil, included a method to confirm emissions reductions and required "industrial countries to list ther individual targets and developing countries to list the actions they will take to cut global warming pollution by specific amounts" (Yahoo! News). "We have come a long way, but we have much further to go," offered President Obama.
Many other heads of state were visibly disappointed. "I will not hide my disappointment," said European Union President Jose Manual Barroso in reference to the deal that was "clearly below" the EU's goal and "extremely flawed" according to Sudanese ambassador Lumumba Di-Aping. Click here to read the full article on Yahoo! News.
To ease the public, however, President Obama is maintaining this climate deal will have discernible effects. "Today, following a multilateral meeting between President Obama, Premier Wen, Prime Minister Singh, and President Zuma, a meaningful agreement was reached," stated an official administration memo obtained by the New York Times. "It's not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change but it's an important first step."
However, many environmentalists and climate rationalists view the agreement as a sham -- a document meant to quell climate change concern, while offering no effective, helpful solution. "This is a declaration that small and poor countries don't matter, that international civil society doesn't matter, and that serious limits on carbon don't matter," offered Bill McKibben, who was recently the subject of Mother Jones: Copenhagen Is "An Elaborate Sham" on the APRC™.
"The president has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming. It may get Obama a reputation as a tough American leader, but it's at the expense of everything progressives have held dear. 189 countries have been left powerless, and the foxes now guard the carbon henhouse without any oversight."
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