ISAS Insights

It took strenuous efforts on the part of the United States President Barack Obama to get the squabbling conferees representing 193 countries to issue the “Copenhagen Accord”. This was a three-page, twelve-paragraph and two-annex document made public a few minutes before the two-week “conference of the parties” was set to conclude. The Accord is not a binding treaty and as such does not commit the major atmosphere-polluting countries to cut carbon emissions according to an agreed set of targets. As such, the Accord did not please the environment community or the thousands of protesters who kept vigil for two weeks outside the conference hall. That said, the Accord will be a historic document for at least three reasons. Firstly, the conferees – especially the United States (US) – accepted the finding by scientists that global warming was occurring because of human activity. Secondly, it was recognised that much greater adjustment efforts needed to be made by rich countries compared to those that were still at a relatively early stage of development. And, thirdly, that the developing world needed a large infusion of capital to move towards a less carbon-intensive strategy of development as well as to cope with the consequences of global warming. Many in the developing world were bound to be severely affected no matter how stringent were the mitigating actions were, or how much the global community was prepared to take or likely to adopt.