The “Copenhagen Accord”, the final document on international climate change mitigation, has been finalized, but not approved with a consensus, so technically, it has not passed.  At least, that seems to be the case.  It’s hard to tell exactly, because they are still, as of 12:30 CET Denmark time and 5:30 am CST in the U.S., arguing and debating the process and final document.   They can’t adopt it formally because there is no consensus.  Many delegates have left already.  And no, Obama didn’t save the day, but he did work hard at negotiations.

Many delegates and negotiators did stay despite contentiousness, accusations of sneakiness and people making agreements without everyone being aware of the meetings; even accusations of people being shut out of discussions.

But after many propositions and suggestions from people who had not slept since last Wednesday it was/is kind of hard to make sense of what did or did not happen at the end.  There is no consensus accord, that is clear, so no official agreement.  It’s really too early to tell whether the conference was a failure though.  Discussions are still ongoing right now (1:00 pm Copenhagen time).  Some of the people discussing this have not slept for over 2 days.  Many people wanted the bill to be blocked from passage, and it more or less was, by Sudan and some other developing countries such as Tuvalu.

What will they tell people when they go back home, that they have no accord that is binding?  Or that we have, as American media calls it, a “political agreement” that is non-binding.

The talks were a  major disappointment in some respects, and there is (as yet) no deal, but we knew there would be disagreements that would be tough to overcome. A huge sticking point (that they are still discussing as I write this) is a 2C rise versus what the small island nations and some others want, a 1.5C rise.   There was quite a bit of talk of individual countries doing things on their own.   As Yvo de Boer just said, there were mistakes that were made:

–  The procedure and administrative mistake where a COP decsion was adopted in the wrong setting.  So the record has to be corrected because no agreement was made.

– The confusion over the exact language which was adopted from the podium.  He didn’t even know the correct language himself.

– How to parties associate themselves with the deal when so many secret and extra meetings and negotiating sessions were going on?

Sudan, which threw a wrench into the proceedings at the very end, just said they are very pleased at the outcome.

Websites where you can read the latest:

The Guardian, which thinks it’s all over –Low targets, goals dropped

Copenhagen Deal — Activists React. The deal (click here to read the document released to the media, or read the AP’s summary) as described by Obama reflects some progress helping poor nations cope with climate change and getting [...]