Obama Speech holds little hope for saving Climate Change negotiations
Press Release, Friday 18th December 09
"The US is the one major player yet to move. Developing countries have come here to negotiate in good faith but feel they have been cheated and it looks like they will leave empty handed," added Mehta.
Many felt that the success or failure of Copenhagen lay in what Obama would come up with on his arival at the summit. See Thursday's Press Release: Obama holds the key to failing climate negotiations
Obama offered no further commitment on reducing emissions or finance to poor nations beyond that announced by US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton on Thursday.
In her announcement, Secretary Clinton announced $100 million towards combatting climate change but failed to say how much of that would be public money or what the US's contribution to this would be.
On Tuesday, the US sought to remove any reference to a combined emissions cut by all rich countries from the final deal. This is going back on the agreement made by the US in Bali and risks derailing the Copenhagen Summit. See Wednesday's Press Release: US move on emissions violates 2007 agreement
The US emissions target amounts to a 4 per cent reduction on 1990 levels by 2020 – less than one tenth of what the science says is required.
Obama's speech can be watched in full below.
The text can be downloaded here in pdf format.
- In the Guardian: Barack Obama's speech disappoints and fuels frustration at Copenhagen
- Tom Sharman blogs from COP15: Civil society enraged but still engaged as endgame approaches
- Find out what is happening on the ground in Copenhagen with our Daily blog from staff and activists
- Climate Change around the world and how it is affecting real lives now
- Rich countries' Climate Debt and how they can repay it, an ActionAid rough guide (PDF)
