The Copenhagen summit, with an aim to find a way for countries to work together to prevent climate change, has ended with an agreement put in place.
There is, controversially, no law in place to ensure each nation will be doing their bit.
Here’s what the UK national newspapers have made of it…
Copenhagen climate conference approves global warming deal despite opposition
The UN climate conference in Copenhagen today approved a deal to tackle global warming proposed by world leaders, despite opposition from a number of countries.
…it has no long-term global targets for emissions cuts or a timetable to turn the agreement into a legally-binding treaty – leading environmental campaigners and aid agencies to brand it toothless and a failure.
PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s claims of a “milestone” climate change deal were last night blasted by critics.
White House officials said the pact – known as the Copenhagen Accord – was an “important first step” but “not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change”.
Mr Obama left the talks in Denmark last night – BEFORE a final vote.
Copenhagen closes with weak deal that poor threaten to reject
The UN climate summit in Copenhagen has formally closed with a deal many countries admit falls far short of the action needed to tackle global warming.
The non-binding accord, which the US reached with key nations including China and Brazil, “recognises” the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but does not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal.
Copenhagen climate summit: Ban Ki-moon hails deal as ‘essential beginning’
Delegates finally agreed to ‘recognise’ the US-brokered deal, which was arranged between five key nations including China and Brazil but which did not secure unanimous support.
But Mr Ban said the agreement must be made legally binding next year.
Climate change summit accepts ‘toothless’ US-backed agreement – but deal is not legally binding
The fudged deal – backed by Britain, America, South Africa, India, Brazil and China – came after a day of bitter rows and divisions in which the United Nations talks came close to collapse.
Last night, President Obama said the deal was an ‘unprecedented breakthrough’ and that countries would add firm commitments next year.
But its flimsy nature was exposed when he admitted targets put forward by countries ‘will not be by themselves sufficient to get to where we need to get by 2050′.
‘Lukewarm’ climate change deal in Copenhagen
The UN climate conference in Copenhagen today approved a deal to tackle global warming proposed by world leaders, after an accord Barack Obama brokered with China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
But the UN Secretary General today admitted the non-binding agreement at the conclusion of the conference was not “everything everyone had hoped for”, as he confirmed a deal had finally been done.
CLIMATE NUT BROWN WILL RUIN BRITAIN
GORDON Brown was yesterday accused of signing a £500billion death warrant for Britain’s economy in his desperate quest for a climate change deal.
His pledge – the biggest reduction proposed by any western industrialised nation – was made despite a continuing debate about whether mankind is to blame for climate change.
Ignoring the dire state of the country’s finances and record Government borrowing figures announced yesterday, Mr Brown has already pledged to hand over £7.5billion to an international fund to help poorer countries cope with climate change.
Whilst I am not surprised by the negative reaction to the deal, I am somewhat taken aback by the Express, whose only agenda seems to be to make life as difficult for Gordon Brown as possible, rather than focussing on the issues at hand, and The Sun’s focus on Barack Obama’s exit also left me a little worried that the right wing oriented press are using this as an opportunity to bash the government.
What do you think?
