| Update from United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 |
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Around 130 heads of state including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US President Obama will arrive at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen around Wednesday this week. It is being hailed as the single biggest international meeting in history, with around 34,000 delegates, most of whom will have highly restricted access to the conference this week. Because of so much political fire power, it is guaranteed the climate negotiations will be hailed a “success” by the weekend. The question is what they define as success. This remarkable mass gathering of world leaders has cut short the time for negotiations over draft texts for international agreements, binding or otherwise. There is simply not time to finish before leaders arrive and take over the process. What they do with this opportunity is uncertain. We know Kevin Rudd has been tracking the process closely, and has been working the phones with other world leaders. We know Penny Wong has been working hard since she arrived last week to try and make progress on some form of agreement. We know the lead Australian negotiators are more upbeat than many others on the ability of leaders to transform this momentum into outcomes. But no one knows what we will end up with by Friday night. |
RET works because it is domestic and awards the most efficient technology based on cost of reducing emissions, says a lot for wind if it can't handle a low REC price.
Its time those preaching market efficiency understood it.