What happened at the Copenhagen Summit? Why is it so difficult for the Word Leaders to cooperate even on the brink of a major disaster?

Content

Introduction page 3 1. The fighting between the emerging powers and western countries page 4 2. The political context page 4 3. The cultural difference page 5 4. The “Agreement” page 7 5. Any hope? page 8
Conclusion page 9
Some references page 10

Introduction

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been adopted at Rio de Janeiro on 1992 by 154 countries and the European Union. In 2004, it has been ratified by 189 countries. The objective of this UN entity is to understand the climate change and how to take the alleviate measures and mitigation. The conference of the parties (COP) is the highest internal organization to monitor the good implementation of the fixed objectives. The last COP was held in Bali (2007), Poznan (2008) and Copenhagen (2009).

The protocol of Kyoto (December 2007) made the main developed countries to engage themselves to reduce by 5.2 % the emission of greenhouses gas for the period of 2008-2012. However, not all the developed countries signed the protocol (e.g. USA). The conference of Copenhagen was supposed to succeed to the protocol of Kyoto, which shall expire in 2012.

Heads of States and representatives of 193 countries attended the 2 weeks conference. However, on 19th December, the negotiations between the developed countries, the emerging powers and the developing countries did not finalize onto an official ambitious agreement.

More than an agreement, it was a political document of three pages that came out on December, 19th, after a last night of discussion, hours after the scheduled time of closure. Some nations leaded the game: USA, China, Brasilia, India, South Africa. The European Union was not in the ultimate discussions and accepted the