the guy by the door …

The UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen was due to end Friday. But rising pressure from ‘the developing world’ i.e. the 130 nations of the G77¹ and the leak of a confidential memo to the UN Secretariat admitting that the carbon emission targets so far are too high,  raised the question of whether world leaders will stay on. The Guardian’s Copenhagen Twitter channel reflected confusion about what press conferences would occur when. First the rumor was that Obama would give a press conference, but then it turned out he was only addressing the Whitehouse press corps. Then he left due to weather in Washington. The EU delayed it’s press conference for another round of talks. The ‘deal’ wasn’t actually ‘sealed’ until the wee hours of Saturday  morning, well after Ban Ki-moon had declared a highly qualified victory.  It was agreed by the Conference of Parties to ‘take note of‘ the agreement brokered by Obama, between the U.S., China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

As of 11:00 AM EST² on 12/19/09, The Uptake . Org is webcasting the press conference of the Climate Action Network on its Copenhagen 1 channel.

Obama:  Nothing legally binding. Kyoto was legally binding but everybody fell short anyway.

Friday night, close to midnight Copenhagen time, The Uptake.Org interviewed Naomi Klein and Bill MkGibben. Naomi pointed out that of the big five agreed on the 3+ degree nonbinding agreement – U.S. , China, India, Brazil, and South Africa – that they would have probably agreed to a stronger carbon reduction budget if the U.S. had put it on the table.

One Climate interviewed Amy Goodman, “This is another olympic failure.”

¹There were 77 developing nations when the group was formed. It now has 130.

²I suspect it’s running on a loop.