And for starters, despite what some are saying Copenhagen was a major failure. Not even close. While many are turning towards China now to lay blame, that may not be entirely fair. It's not that China hasn't been an obstacle (much like the US for years) but this event was poorly organized and had signs of failure prior to even starting. China may have been wrong, but since when has that regime bent under pressure on deals that were doomed from the start?
It's going to take a much better effort to make this happen. There appears to be a gap in leadership on the subject at the moment. As right as the the movement may be, it needs to be much more proactive instead of making the (wrong) assumption that everyone buys into their plans. The US alone is going to continue being a tough sell until the climate change movement gets its act together.
The deal, finally hammered out early yesterday, had been expected to commit countries to deep cuts in carbon emissions. In the end, it fell short of this goal after China fought hard against strong US pressure to submit to a regime of international monitoring.
The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, walked out of the conference at one point, and sent a lowly protocol officer to negotiate with Barack Obama. In the end, a draft agreement put forward by China – and backed by Brazil, India and African nations – commits the world to the broad ambition of preventing global temperatures from rising above 2C. Crucially, however, it does not force any nation to make specific cuts.
"For the Chinese, this was our sovereignty and our national interest," said Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation.
