It did not move us the way we needed to: Obama on Copenhagen

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Dec 24 (PTI) With 'Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on his way to the airport' and the 'Chinese
skipping negotiations', US President Barack Obama Thursday
said the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit was on the brink of
a complete collapse, before he decided to take a chance to
give it a final push.
"Rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in
which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge
backward step, at least we kind of held ground and there
wasn't too much backsliding from where we were," Obama said.
"It didn't move us the way we need to. The science
says that we have got to significantly reduce emissions over
the next 40 years. There's nothing in the Copenhagen agreement
that ensures that that happens," Obama said when asked about
the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change.
"What did occur was that at a point where there was
about to be complete breakdown, and the Prime Minister of
India was heading to the airport and the Chinese
representatives were essentially skipping negotiations, and
everybody's screaming, what did happen was, cooler heads
prevailed," he told US PBS television's Newshour programme.
"We were able to at least agree on non-legally binding
targets for all countries – not just the US, not just Europe,
but also for China and India, which, projecting forward, are
going to be the world's largest emitters." PTI LKJ
ANU