COPENHAGEN TRAVESTY

What a complete and utter travesty Copenhagen proved to be. Despite all the rhetoric from our political 'leaders' about the grim future that awaits us all if nothing is done about global warming that is what they shamefully did in Copenhagen - exactly nothing.

The sham deal was pushed by the United States and Australia, and sealed in meetings behind closed doors with the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

It's a meaningless agreement cooked up by politicians not prepared to front up to the people of the planet.

'It may not be everything we hoped for, but this decision of the Conference of Parties is an essential beginning,' UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

Ki-moon, clearly not wanting to offend the likes of the United States, insulted us all with his vacuous comments.

The 'accord' sets no global emission-reduction targets for the medium or long-term. This accord only 'obliges' the developed countries to 'communicate' their efforts to 'limit' greenhouse gas emissions every two years and there are no binding procedures in place to independently verify such reduction claims.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer described this 'do nothing' agreement as 'a way of recognizing that something is there, but not going so far as to directly associate yourself with it."

I hope he understands what he's talking about because nobody else does.

Samantha Hayes from TV3 was all excited about Barack Obama attending Copenhagen and told us last week that he might help to 'galvanise proceedings'.

In fact he did what most of the socialist left thought he might do - he tried to scapegoat the Chinese government because it would not allow its carbon emissions to be externally monitored. Obama's hypocrisy was breathtaking since he leads a country that has resolutely opposed any binding agreement.

Obama may have appeased powerful corporate interests back home in the United States but his actions at Copenhagen, once again, show there is a yawning credibility gap between what Obama says and what he actually does.

The real push for genuine measures to be taken against global warming came from Latin America - although its message got, predictably, inadequate coverage from the corporate media.

Speaking on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela accused Obama of behaving like an emperor 'who comes in during the middle of the night … and cooks up a document that we will not accept, we will never accept'.

Chavez also rightly attacked Obama's undemocratic behaviour and his failure to consult with developing nations.

He declared that 'all countries are equal' and that he would not accept that some countries had prepared a text for a climate deal and just 'slipped [it] under the door' to be signed by the others.

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, also took the conference floor to express his anger at the way a climate deal was being cooked up by a small group of world leaders at the last minute. 'If there is no agreement at this level, why not tell the people?", he said at the plenary meeting and called for open consultation with all the countries present at Copenhagen.

'Who is responsible?', Morales asked and concluded that 'the responsibility lies on the capitalist system -- we have to change the capitalist system'.

This travesty of a agreement is a disaster for the planet and for many developing countries.

One of our Pacific neighbours, Tuvalu, for example, now faces the grim prospect of being drowned under rising ocean levels.

One of Sudan’s representatives, Lumumba Stanislas Dia-ping, said that Africa was being asked 'to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries'.

Erich Pica, president of the Friends of the Earth (USA), was so right when he said that the "climate negotiations in Copenhagen have yielded a sham agreement with no real requirements for any countries. This is not a strong deal or a just one -- it isn't even a real one. It's just repackaging old positions and pretending they're new. The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilising climate...'

Meanwhile, while the world burns, our 'leaders' are planning more meaningless talks next year..