Failure at Copenhagen prompts Opposition attack on Government

The failure of delegates at the Copenhagen climate change summit to reach a binding resolution has fuelled Opposition attacks on prime minister Kevin Rudd, potentially threatening attempts to reintroduce an emissions trading scheme.

Delegates at the summit reached a “political accord” to limit global warming to just two degrees this century, but without any binding resolutions or agreements as to how the goal would be implemented.

The Copenhagen Accord promises to reduce global warming to two degrees, and the intention to build up a $100 billion “green fund” to assist attempts to reduce emissions.

The lack of a binding agreement was forecast by several world leaders and climate change scientists, who noted the division between “rich” and “poor” nations at the summit was holding delegations back from producing a legally binding document.

The G77 bloc accused richer nations of trying to stamp out any aspect of the Kyoto Protocol from a new agreement, which would force richer nations to cut emissions while giving poorer nations financial support to cut emissions of their own.

“The Prime Minister is, perhaps more than almost any other world leader, overstating what is a disappointing outcome,” Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt told the ABC this morning. “I think that Kevin Rudd should face up to facts that his justification for an ETS has now been taken away.”

And while the Liberal Party and the Greens attacked the deal, China welcomed the Accord despite it not including any binding resolution or regulations for attacking emissions or financial details for how it will be paid.

Foreign minister Yang Jiechi said the summit, which lasted 12 days, delivered a consensus on several issues including the need for long-term targets and the financial assistance given to other nations.

The challenge for Rudd now is to set a new target for reducing emissions by 1 February, around the same time he hopes to reintroduce the emissions trading scheme legislation. If the figure is at the high end of the Governments 5-25% target, the Opposition will likely attack Rudd for setting high ambitions without the support of other nations.

A snapshot of the fallout from Copenhagen:

· “With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results.” – Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

· “The end of the road would’ve been the complete collapse of those talks [in Copenhagen]. This is a great step forward,” – Barack Obama aid David Axelrod.

· “What the world needs is a just and equitable deal. What the world needs is a transparent, democratic, participatory process for concluding a deal. What the world needs is a sense of solidarity and a commitment to help those who need to be saved, as we speak today.” – G77 Group chairman Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping.

· “The fact that we do not yet have a legally binding global agreement to cut emissions is not a bar.” – Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull.

· “Good intentions are better than nothing, but it has got to be a terrible disappointment for the Prime Minister who said that real progress meant real targets against real timelines.” – Opposition leader Tony Abbott

· “Well I don’t whether it’s an ‘accord’, I think it’s kind of a ‘D flat’. What it is, is a farce.” – Barnaby Joyce.

· “You really need a more aggressive reduction target from the US by a couple of percentage points. You’d need China to tighten up its efficiency gains by another 5%.” – Tim Flannery, head of the climate division at Macquarie University.

· “Of course there’s a lot to do, of course we would have wanted more.” – Climate change minister Penny Wong.

· “I think it’s a very big setback for the planet and that means all Australians as well.” – Greens leader Bob Brown.