No pact, but it's not the end of the world

Snow fell heavily during the end of the climate change conference. It is winter, after all, in the northern hemisphere. And this gives a feeling of anti-climax: a global warming summit in the snow? Climate deniers and general sceptics must be smirking: go have some gløgg (warm wine) to counter the cold! On a more sober note, no agreement was reached between world leaders, and that is worrisome.

Naomi Klein set the tone at the opening ceremony of KlimaForum09, the parallel alternative venue for civil activists and NGOs, by warning that this occasion was nothing less than the "last chance to save the world." She was most critical of the "disaster capitalism" of the Copenhagen conference and of the multinational energy companies that sponsored their "green" efforts.

Global leaders also painted end of the world scenarios. As they filtered in during the second week of proceedings, former US vice-president and long-time climate champion Al Gore dropped an apocalyptic bombshell upon his arrival by warning of marine acidity. Not only will the glaciers melt and the seas cover us, but once under water we will discover that there are no longer fishes or coral.

Other international figures, such as Prince Charles of Wales, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Nobel Prize winner Wangaari Mathai from the Green Belt Movement in Kenya gave moving speeches to motivate world leaders to reach an agreement. COP15 President Connie Hedegaard and Executive Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer also urged presidents and prime ministers not to let the world down.

Hedegaard then handed the conference over to Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, which seemed like a resignation, but she was actually just following official procedure, whereby the head of the hosting state takes over the process to engage the other heads of state, regardless of his or her knowledge of climate change. We watched and waited, and waited and watched some more.

The G77 group of developing countries and China maintained their calls for a legally binding agreement in line with Kyoto and the UN climate change convention, thus pushing for developed countries to meet their international legal obligations and provide development funds to emerging economies. Meanwhile, the US side-stepped the Kyoto Protocol and called for more stringent monitoring measures on developing countries' emissions.

Historical responsibility

China made the strongest case against further avoidance of international obligations. The repeated remarks about "historical responsibility" were directed largely at the United States, since other "Annex I" countries, such as the European Union members states, had already met their carbon emission commitments. The US countered by calling on China to accept an international monitoring, reporting and verification team to ensure greater transparency. China said it would put a Chinese team in place.

The showdown between China and the United States has introduced for the first time at the highest political level moral questions about climate change. Other states have relied on historical guilt to consolidate their positions in contemporary politics. China's posturing in Copenhagen amounted to using climate change to reinforce its growing global influence.

China says that the developing countries are the victims and includes itself in that category, despite being the fastest-growing economy and the largest carbon emitter in the world. According to China, the industrialised countries bear historical guilt for their decades and centuries of polluting in the name of progress. Regardless of political ploys, we are all paying the price now for our predecessors' greed.

Anyone who saw There Will Be Blood (2007) will realise that, in the past, we did not enjoy the same ecological preoccupations about our actions; we did not have the technological prowess to deal with environmental concerns; and we did not have the means to create popular awareness, as we do today. Perhaps that has been the greatest success of COP15: to spread awareness around the world about a common global challenge.

World leaders failed to reach an agreement in Copenhagen. Last-minute attempts led to an exclusive accord between the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. The G77, led by Sudan, denounced the accord as disastrous for Africa and the smaller island states that would feel the effects of global warming most acutely. The vague commitment in the non-binding accord is to make some emission cuts in an attempt to ensure that temperatures increase by no more than two degrees Celsius by 2050.

But the world is not ending; this was just another conference. The posters in the Copenhagen airport, showing what today's world leaders might look like in 20 years' time, with deep wrinkles and white hair, and the headline ‘We did nothing' is also inflammatory; most of them will get a second chance at COP16 in Mexico next year. It will be business as usual again, but now more people than ever before know about climate change — and that's something.

Stuart Reigeluth is editor of Revolve Magazine.