Full text of the Copenhagen 'Accord'

The system of international treaty making in the post second world war era has not changed since the days of the Opium Wars (1857-58) in which China, India and Western countries were involved. The task to get a legally binding agreement has now shifted to Mexico City in a years time. Indeed a 10 billion dollars per year allocation has ensured a carbon market worth $1.2 trillion per year.
Whatever has remained in climate talks is because of this market. Clearly, when rich talks about climate its about commerce and not about golden hearted environmentalism. UN climate talks are going the same way as WTO talks.

See the official full text of the Copenhagen Accord
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf

Barack Obama spurned Europe and the poor countries of the world and attempted to form a league of super-polluters, and would-be super-polluters. Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping who is the Chair of the G77 group of countries compared the agreement to the Holocaust. He said the deal "asked Africa to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries. This is devoid of any sense of responsibility, morality and it is a solution based on the values, the very values which in our opinion channelled six million people in Europe into furnaces. This deal will definitely result in massive devastation in Africa and small island states," he said. "It has the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It's nothing short of climate change Scepticism in action. It locks countries into a cycle of poverty for ever. Obama has eliminated any difference between him and Bush. The developed countries have decided that damage to developing countries is acceptable.

Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General told the final session: "I know that most developed and developing countries, they are not all happy but I believe that through this adoption of the Copenhagen Accord you will be able to get everything you need." It seals a commitment to limit global temperatures rises to no more than 2 degrees Celcius but fixes no firm targets to do that. Notably, most countries wanted 1.5 degree C target.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) looked forward to the next major meeting in this series, CoP 16 he said: "I think we've got to achieve in Mexico what we failed to achieve here" at Cop 15.

The continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been confirmed. Developed countries commit collectively to providing US$30 billion in new, additional funding for developing countries for the 2010-2012 period.

Key Parts:

2 degrees C: We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity.

Memorializing rich country specific reductions: Annex I Parties commit to implement individually or jointly the quantified economywide emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted in the format given in Appendix I by Annex I Parties to the secretariat by 31 January 2010 for compilation in an INF document.

Memorializing rich country specific actions: Non-Annex I Parties to the Convention will implement mitigation actions, including those to be submitted to the secretariat by non-Annex I Parties in the format given in Appendix II by 31 January 2010, for compilation in an INF document, consistent with Article 4.1 and Article 4.7 and in the context of sustainable development. Those mitigation actions in national communications or otherwise communicated to the Secretariat will be added to the list in appendix II. Mitigation actions taken by Non-Annex I Parties will be subject to their domestic measurement, reporting and verification the result of which will be reported through their national communications every two years.

Copenhagen Green Climate Fund $30 billion then $100 billion: The collective commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010 to 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation.

Copenhagen Green Climate Fund: Copenhagen Green Climate Fund : The commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010 – 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation.'

1.5 degrees C: We call for an assessment of the implementation of this Accord to be completed by 2015, including in light of the Convention's ultimate objective. This would include consideration of strengthening the long-term goal referencing various matters presented by the science, including in relation to temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius

The earlier 2050 goal of reducing global CO2 emissions by 80% has been deleted from the final draft. The accord promised about $30-billion in funding in 3 years for poor countries to adapt to climate change will commence next year and mobilization of $100-billion a year after 2020.

GIVEN BELOW IS THE SPEECH OF MR. JAIRAM RAMESH, MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT & FORESTS, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, AT THE HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF THE UN CLIMATE CONFERENCE, COPENHAGEN ON 16 DECEMBER 2009

Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen, It is my privilege to speak on behalf of the Government of India. We continue to derive inspiration from the Father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi who is an icon for the environmental movement everywhere. India is already and will be even more profoundly impacted by climate change.

In many ways, we have the highest vulnerability on multiple dimensions. We have a tremendous
obligation to our own people by way of both adaptation and mitigation policies and programmes. That is why we have already announced a number of ambitious measures proactively.

We have a detailed national action plan on climate change with eight focused national missions and twenty four critical initiatives. Under this plan, we have already launched a solar energy mission aimed at 20,000 Mw by 2022 and a domestic market-based mechanism for further stimulating energy
efficiency in industry. Other national missions for accelerating afforestation, for promoting sustainable habitats, for expanding sustainable agriculture and for protecting the
crucial Himalayan ecosystem are on the anvil. New GHG emission-reducing technologies in coal-based power generation are being deployed on a large-scale. Mandatory fuel efficiency standards in the transport sector will soon become a reality.

We have established our own version of an IPCC comprising more than 120 of our leading scientific and technological institutions to continuously measure, monitor and model the impacts of climate change on different sectors and in different regions of our country. In addition to establishing a nation-wide climate observatory network, we are going to launch our own satellite in 2011 to monitor GHG and aerosol emissions globally.

Derived from our detailed National Action Plan on Climate Change, we are now considering nationally accountable mitigation outcomes in different sectors like industry, energy, transport, building and forests. Over the last decade we have added over 3 million hectares to our forest cover and today our forest cover is sequestering close to 10% of our annual greenhouse gas emissions. We will endeavour to maintain that level.

India has been a major participant in the CDM. If all our projects are approved and implemented as scheduled by 2012, carbon credits amounting to a further 10% of our annual GHG emissions will be available to developed countries to enable them to meet their KP commitments.

We are convinced that a low-carbon strategy is an essential aspect of sustainable development. While we already have one of the lowest emissions intensity of the economy, we will do more. We are targeting a further emissions intensity decline of 20-25% by 2020 on 2005 levels. This is significant given our huge developmental imperatives.

Deeply conscious of our international responsibilities as well, we have already declared that our per capita emissions will never exceed the per capita emissions of the developed countries. We have recently unveiled projected GHG emissions profiles till the year 2030.

Aware of the need for enhanced transparency, we have suggested using the National Communication process, in a format and frequency to be agreed to, as a mechanism to reflect internationally the nature and impact of actions taken domestically. Let me add here that India has probably the most rigorous MRV system that any government can go through – with its democratic Parliament, activist judiciary, vigilant NGOs and watchful media.

We are transforming environmental governance systems. A judicial National Green Tribunal and an executive National Environmental Protection Agency is on the anvil. We have just announced a new generation of national ambient air quality standards that is on par with the strictest in the world.

Our entire approach to this Conference is anchored in the sanctity of the troika--the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan. We believe that the well-known and widely accepted principles of (i) common but differentiated responsibility; and (ii) historical responsibilities are acrosanct.

As a global goal, India subscribes to the view that the temperature increase ought not to exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 from mid-19th century levels. But this objective must be firmly embedded in a demonstrably equitable access to atmospheric space, with adequate finance and technology
available to all developing countries.

Excellencies, one of the two heads of state to address the first UN Conference on the Environment held in Stockholm thirty seven years back was Mrs. Indira Gandhi – the other being the host Prime Minister. What she said on the historic occasion brought the development agenda into the mainstream of the discourse on environmental concerns. We recall that message and reiterate our resolve to be integral part of the solution to global warming—now and always.
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