What a surprise . . . an agreement has been reached at Hopenchangen at the eleventh hour and, guess what? It’s historic!!!
Andy Revkin has the administration’s description:
Today, following a multilateral meeting between President Obama, Premier Wen, Prime Minister Singh, and President Zuma a meaningful agreement was reached. Its not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change but its an important first step.
We entered this negotiation at a time when there were significant differences between countries. Developed and developing countries have now agreed to listing their national actions and commitments, a finance mechanism, to set a mitigation target of two degrees celsius and to provide information on the implementation of their actions through national communicatios, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines.
No country is entirely satisfied with each element but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make further progress.
We thank the emerging economies for their voluntary actions and especially appreciate the work and leadership of the europeans in this effort.
Emphases added. The future of climate-change summits is assured.
BTW, here’s what I said would happen on Dec. 30, 2008.