COP15 Day 12: Outcome so far is 'vague, 'inadequate,' 'shame'

Editor’s note: Greenbang will be providing daily dispatches and ongoing updates from the climate change talks in Copenhagen, and is covering the conference virtually to keep our carbon footprint low.

Following are developments from today’s events at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen:

• Climate Interactive says the latest draft text for the Copenhagen Accord, offered late in the night, has “too few quantifiable targets for our team to adequately analyse it.” The result is that Climate Interactive’s Climate Scoreboard — the projected level of warming based on nations’ existing policies — remains unchanged at 3.9 degrees C of warming by 2100, far beyond the 2 degrees C considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change. The draft also has the G77 bloc of developing nations “crying murder,” according to New Scientist, with the charge that “this locks developing nations & the poor of developing nations in poverty for ever.”
• The responses coming in from other delegates in the early morning hours include: “Our future is not for sale” (Tuvalu), “You toss the paper on the table and walk away… coup d’etat on un process” (Venezuela) and “Not respectful of democratic mechanisms that exist” (Bolivia).
  
• Speaking in Copenhagen today, US President Barack Obama said, “After months of talk, and two weeks of negotiations, I believe that the pieces of that accord are now clear. First, all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. I’m pleased that many of us have already done so, and I’m confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 per cent by 2020, and by more than 80 per cent by 2050 in line with final legislation. Second, we must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and to exchange this information in a transparent manner. These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty. They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we are living up to our obligations. For without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page. Third, we must have financing that helps developing countries adapt, particularly the least-developed and most vulnerable to climate change. America will be a part of fast-start funding that will ramp up to $10 billion in 2012. And, yesterday, Secretary Clinton made it clear that we will engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if — and only if — it is part of the broader accord that I have just described.”
• 350.org’s latest take on the talks as they stand at the moment: “Needed: 350 ppm. Negotiated: 770 ppm. Diagnosis: Inadequate.”