2009 was a year marked by many things and a lot of change around the world. Two wars still rage in the Middle East, the economy has taken a global downturn, and issues of the environment became the topic of everyday conversation around the world. For the United Kingdom the issue was recycling and waste management, as it was revealed that the UK ranked near the bottom in those categories among its European counterparts. The UK has stepped up its recycling efforts with some success but in the aftermath of the failure in Copenhagen it will take renewed leadership for the United Kingdom to continue to increase recycling rates and reduce waste in the new year.
Gordon Brown has already started to outline some of the things that need to be done in 2010 to get the country and the world on track when it comes to climate change. Even with the rubble of the Copenhagen disaster still smoking, Brown is calling for more meetings among world leaders, although this time, not under the umbrella of the fantastically ineffective United Nations. It is likely that the next set of meetings will not be as public and will take place in meetings of the G8 and in other economic forums. The key issue is whether or not the increased ambition of the UK and EU will be matched by nations like America, China, Japan, and Australia, who have not yet signed off on a thirty percent reduction over the next ten years.
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