The political declaration by heads of states names the Copenhagen
Accord was not formally adopted. To the horror of most delegations,
seven countries opposed the Accord: Tuvalu, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba,
Venezuela, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They stressed there is no
consensus and the Accord cannot be officially adopted. The meeting was
suspended and after several hours of frantic efforts, a compromise was
reached. A COP decision was made to not adopt but “Take note of the
Copenhagen Accord of 18 December 2009,” attach the Accord in an
Appendix and list the countries who support the accord.
The mandate for negotiations was extended but the reference to
“legally binding” outcome of 2010 negotiations was taken out. AOSIS,
Japan, Russia, the EU, and Norway supported “legally binding.” India,
China, Brazil, Saudi and the US opposed. However, the US was soft and
merely said it is better not to prejudge legal nature of outcome.
Similar exchange on KP AWG mandate. South Africa wanted to ensure AWG
KP leads to Kyoto 2 and proposed "adoption of KP amendment at COP16."
Japan and Russia opposed. End result: the mandate of the two AWGs is
extended for one year but no mention of what negotiations are supposed
to lead to (what kind of agreement the end product is supposed to be).
There will be two 2010 sessions: Bonn in May/June, and COP16 in Mexico
November/December.
Merry Chritmas to all!
Radoslav S. Dimitrov, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Western Ontario
Social Science Centre
London, Ontario
Canada N6A 5C2
Tel. +1(519) 661-2111 ext. 85023
Fax +1(519) 661-3904
Email: [email protected]
