No matter how much the three main Canadian parties may say that the deal reached in Cancun is a "breakthrough," the facts remain that it was a failure. Most of the agreement was already decided in Copenhagen and there still is no binding agreement on lowering emissions. This is necessary to stop climate change and its consequences. With the Republicans in power in the United States and the Conservatives ruling in Canada, it doesn't seem like there will be any accord any time soon. It would take a miracle to produce an agreement. We will have to wait for next year in South Africa.
The verdicts are in, and all parties are calling the Cancun climate talks a success although the meeting concluded with no binding agreement for reducing greenhouse gases.
The NDP’s environment critic Linda Duncan arrived in Ottawa early Sunday morning, just hours after the environmental summit had wrapped up, calling the agreement that was reached a “breakthrough.”
Read more at the
Globe and Mail.
Not a complete failure, probably a modest success, and one that was badly needed. We now have consensus among 190+ nations that climate change is happening, and that we must set up a fund to help developing nations fight climate change, preserve forests and biodiversity, and set up mechanisms to measure, report and verify emissions reductions. Quite an achievement in some ways, and hopefully the basis for global binding targets next year.
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