Thursday, December 9, 2010

Cancun: Disagreement Threatens to Doom the Conference

Germany Focuses on Climate Protection Opportunities in Cancun


12/09/2010 - Somber warnings about the approaching climate catastrophe, en vogue during the UN climate summit in Copenhagen last year, are passé in Cancun. Now, countries like Germany are instead looking to the opportunities that the fight against global warming provides. Still, disagreement threatens to doom the conference.

The German environment minister, it would seem, is tired of issuing dark warnings of impending climate change disaster. "In Germany, we have begun to see things in a different light in recent years," Norbert Röttgen said on Wednesday during his first appearance at the UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico. "People in business, in politics and in the society at large no longer see climate change as a threat, but as an opportunity and a challenge."

Several delegates -- those from island nations in the Pacific, for example, or those from coastal countries in Asia -- were no doubt not particularly impressed by Röttgen's efforts to play down the global warming catastrophe. Indeed, the dangers posed by climate change serve as their central argument in favor of a new agreement which would require industrialized nations to assist poor countries and those at acute risk. {read rest}

No comments:

Post a Comment