China wrecked the Copenhagen deal

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

Where's the link?

I'll just go with this link.

Additionally, here is the agenda prior to the conference...

The UN climate change conference in Copenhagen has one critical goal: a global treaty to help cut carbon emissions to levels that will prevent dangerous rises in global temperatures and catastrophic climate change.

FAIL - FACT: Only 30 out of 190 countries signed and some critical players refused.

That deal must set goals for cutting global CO2 emissions: some say a 50 percent reduction by 2050 is enough to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, others argue 80 percent is necessary.

FAIL

Politicians must also decide from when emissions cuts will be measured: will it be 1990 as under the Kyoto Protocol, or later? The “baseline year” will impact massively on the cuts individual countries have to make.

FAIL
Link
Despite widely held expectations that the Copenhagen summit would produce a legally binding treaty, the conference was plagued by negotiating deadlock and the "Copenhagen Accord" is not legally enforceable.

George Monbiot blamed the failure of the conference to achieve a binding deal on the United States Senate and Barack Obama. By negotiating the Copenhagen Accord with only a select group of nations most of the UN member states were excluded. If poorer nations did not sign the Accord then they would be unable to access funds from richer nations to help them adapt to climate change. He noted how the British and American governments have both blamed China for the failure of the talks but said that Obama placed China in "an impossible position" - "He demanded concessions while offering nothing."

(Use same link as above.)
Yet another non-partisan perspective from someone who was there and its a safe bet, is infinitely more knowledgeable on the topic than any poster here.