When it comes to the environment, the latest paradox is that Qatar, world champion in carbon footprint per capita, should be the organiser of the UN conference on climate change, which closed in Doha on December 7. The conference was supposed to deliver a new agreement in the fight against global warming that would set new targets for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and extend the Kyoto Protocol – which runs out this December 31 – until 2015. And a highly under-publicised event it was (excepting the coverage of The Guardian, which has done an outstanding job). For good reason: expectations were minimal.
This is just the latest in a long line of failures since the Copenhagen conference of 2009. Begun with enthusiasm, it ended in a flop, due mainly to the inability of Europeans to impose their vision. The following conference, in Cancun, saw Europe marginalised. The 2011 conference in Durban was marked by divisions, like the Doha conference of today.
See full Article: http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/editorial/3130151-bad-climate
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