Failure at Copenhagen

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd must take a large share of responsibility for the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks.

The Copenhagen Accord has little substance and is a death sentence for the climate. It is really just a face saving exercise rather than a plan to save the planet.

From day one, these talks were in trouble as rich, high-polluting countries, including Australia, tried to strong arm developing countries.

Kevin Rudd will try and spin the outcome and blame developing countries for the failure of these talks, but he must take a large share of responsibility for the failure.

Kevin Rudd and Australia, as a "friend of the chair" was a central part of the controversial push by developed countries to override the Kyoto protocol, the only enforceable international climate agreement, and replace it with self-regulating targets that could only fail.

Australia, along with other other developed countries, has failed to put large pollution cuts on the table or sufficient funding to help developing countries deal with climate change. While over 100 countries called for a target of 1.5 degree and cuts to below 350 ppm CO2-e, Australia continued to push for two degrees and a 450 ppm CO2-e target, while offering cuts that would not even fulfil them.

Kevin Rudd talked 2 degrees but his lack of action is more like 4 degrees.

Kevin Rudd, successfully pressured Pacific and African countries to accept what they described as a "death sentence.

The real measure of the worth of this accord is that Tuvalu, the "climate conscience" of the world rejected it.