Climate summit comes out with face saver

Betwa Sharma and Sagar Kulkarni
Copenhagen, Dec.19 (PTI) The climate change conference
Saturday failed to adopt a binding treaty on emission cuts and
as a face saver decided to "take note" of a US-brokered deal
with India and three other emerging economies which was
rejected by several poor nations.

The dramatic twists and turns in the 12-day conference
to combat global warning came after an extended all night
plenary session in which an overwhelming number of nations
comprising the G-77 and the poor bloc rejected the deal
between the US and BASIC countries --Brazil, South Africa,
India and China.
Unwilling to go empty-handed, US President Barack Obama
and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delayed their
departures Friday night by several hours. Obama surprisingly
walked into a meeting of the BASIC leaders and hammered out a
legally non-binding political deal.
It promised to limit gas emissions to 2 degrees Celsius
of pre-industrial levels and peaking of global and national
emissions at the earlies, among other things.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmuessen, who chaired the
UN-sponsored meeting where decisions are taken by consensus,
frankly acknowledged the lack of it and the inability to get
the deal adopted.
But after a break in the plenary session with a number
of countries supporting the accord, the Conference chair
announced the decision to "take note" of the agreement instead
of formally approving it. (MORE) PTI BS
ANU


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