The Guardian: The Copenhagen climate talks were a disaster says Mark Lynas in the Guardian.
That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait...
...All this raises the question: what is China's game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, "not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?" The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".
This does not mean China is not serious about global warming... But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.
The BBC also lists reasons for the failure of the talks in a piece called "Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal?"
I find the analysis absolutely sensible and appealing the common sense. After all every body knows the background about China. Their concern is to get an edge over the competitors. After they get their agenda done and are confident that they can sustain it for 100 years or so. Then they will come back on global warming issues with a bang. So be careful about them as they are powerful enough to dictate their terms everywhere.
China was right to blame the west because since the industrial revolution western countries have emitted greenhouse gas emissions which have helped their economy.
There are 1,3 billion people in China and only about 300 million live quite comfortably. The remaining 1 billion also want to improve their living standards and this is only possible do to quickly if China takes the the cheapest and abundantly available source of energy: coal.
Ergo it makes sense to push for the west to reduce emissions more drastically than China or India until their emissions reach about 40 % of the total emissions worldwide.