We’ve been waiting months for the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference to kick off, and now after the first week draws to a close, it seems that the dissensions and rumblings about the potential effectiveness of the deal that dominated the build up have come to fruition.
After what has been reportedly a slow week, Ed Miliband, the UK’s environment secretary and one of the more enthusiastic contributors, has bemoaned the lack of progression made by him and his colleagues.
With world leaders set to join discussions this week, Miliband has urged his fellow environment ministers to make the job of their bosses that bit easier by leaving little behind in the way of contention. In a strong attack, Miliband stated as follows:
“I think that the very clear message for negotiators and ministers is that we need to get our act together and take action to resolve some of the outstanding issues that we face… We’re now getting close to midnight in this negotiation and we need to act like it…There are two outstanding issues that I think all countries face, frankly, in this, which is whether we are willing to stand behind our commitments and say that we’re going to do what we promise and, secondly, the precise system of monitoring, reporting and verification to make sure people actually follow through on what they promise”.
After reports claimed that US President Barack Obama had considered sending representatives instead of going himself, and with Gordon Brown planning to arrive two days early to kick start discussions, it seems that the possibility of the Copenhagen Climate deal becoming a dead rubber has been part realised.
It seems now very unlikely that that the tough measures which many thought necessary will be achieved. As the conference enters its second week, and world leaders enter into the general malaise that characterised the first week of negotiations, it is hard to see where a new kind of inspiration might come from.
Perhaps it might come from Ed Miliband. That too, though, seems unlikely: he has remained an enthusiastic supporter of the more philanthropic parts of the deal all along, and his influence to date does not appear to have taken much hold.
Roll on the next week.
