CLIMATE CHANGE (3)

After the pre-conference hype and eventual failure of Copenhagen two years ago, climate change as an issue seems to have disappeared from the headlines in recent times. That doesn't mean that the world has suddenly stopped warming; nor does it mean that we are managing the process any better. It is just that in these straightened times, other issues seem more pressing.

But if climate change as an urgent political issue has gone away, the climate change circus most definitely has not. Last year it was in Cancun in Mexico; and this year it met in Durban in South Africa. What emerged, some 36 hours after the conference had closed, was an agreement to agree a legally binding deal by the end of 2015, to come into effect by 2020. According to the Chairman, the conference had "saved tomorrow, today". The announcement produced lots of applause.

Hang on a second. As any lawyer will tell you, an agreement to agree is not an agreement. Besides, the whole point of Copenhagen was to produce a legally binding agreement, and look what happened there. Two years later, there is agreement - in effect - to try again. That effort should be applauded, but it hardly merits the headline above. After all, there is no guarantee that it will get anywhere.

The conference did some useful things like working out the details of climate aid to poor countries. But they were counterbalanced by Canada's subsequent decision to drop out of the Kyoto process. Furthermore, it is not details that are required, but major changes in countries' policies and individuals' behaviour.

All in all, the climate change conference was a bit like climate change itself; lots of hot air. 

Walter Blotscher