For the past several months the world has waited with anticipation for the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen. Environmental groups and activists have hyped the summit as having the potential to produce real results in the fight against climate change. Protestors have taken to rooftops and even chimneystacks to raise awareness about the summit, as well as to put pressure on governments to actually get something done. However, the optimism that once surrounded the event is starting to dwindle, as politicians and world leaders are trying to quell the hype in the weeks leading up to the summit. Senior politicians in the UK expressed doubt that the summit would be effective and most recently even more world leaders did a u-turn on their previous commitment.
Many world leaders, including American President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and Chinese President Hu Juntao, met in Singapore to discuss climate change. The APEC leaders, who represent more than sixty percent of the world’s economic output, watered down their earlier rhetoric in what appeared to be an attempt to lower expectations about the Copenhagen summit. At the APEC meeting previous commitment were backed away from and made weaker. Originally hard goals had been set to reduce emissions by eighty percent over the next forty years, but this commitment was watered down in a later version of the communiqué.
In the second version of the communiqué the hard numbers set for lowering emissions were softened, especially when it comes to developing nations. Many feel it was China who influenced the change after they made it clear that the original version was controversial. Many feel this is a bad omen leading to Copenhagen, as it shows a lack of resolve in the face of Chinese stubbornness.
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