Denmark meet proved governments powerless to stop climate change

Having participated at COP15 Climate Change conference in Copenhagen Denmark, I was not shocked by the so called “Copenhagen Accord”. Although some people were assured of fruits such as funding (the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund) for Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD), the meeting never reached an agreement about wider future actions. Initial funding was allocated to keep tropical forests standing but countries are yet to meet in Mexico next year during COP16.
On the controversial issue of keeping the Kyoto protocol and not merging it with the COP15 convention, agreement was not reached since developed nations never wanted to enter into the second commitment period having failed to deliver during the first. Developed nations behaved as though they or their descendants will be untouched by the tensions that are already rising as a result of climate variability and change.
COP15 clearly justified that governments do not have the power to resolve the world’s problems on their own. No such government wants to assume responsibility for such problems. Most developed countries having tested the economic recession, were not willing to commit themselves, not even to finalising the issue of technology transfer.
The developing nations demonstrated and even had some delegates denied access to the Bella Center thereafter. They had no alternative but to accept the little to take home.
Science was played with. The impassioned pleas of environmentalist, like one who said that for the good of the earth, let us not joke with science since it governs the universe, fell on deaf ears.

Robert Bakiika,
Executive Director, Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement