KATHMANDU: More than 40,000 people around the world gathered at Bella Centre in Copenhagen with the higher expectation of getting the legally binding documents for cutting the green house gas emissions. Among them, more than 300 were Nepali. Probably those who gathered there in Bella Centre have already been to their homeland and obviously are busy sharing their experiences but very few have the absolute answer to justify their visit, as the Copenhagen accord had nothing pathbreaking in it.

Nepal ,with is on the list of least developed countries, sent a jumbo team of more than 35 delegates headed by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. It is still in a quandary on how to assess its gains in Bella Centre. The 12-point accord mentions least developed countries several times but few have taken this accord as a document of any consequency. There is nothing much to say about the 15th conference of parties (COP 15), said an official at the Ministry of Environment during the informal talks, but the ministry is yet to announce its official view on COP 15.

The Copenhagen accord is very flexible with many loopholes. In the first point of the highly-criticised accord, which focusses on the reduction of emission of green house gases, states, “We should cooperate in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible.”

The point doesn’t mention the particular year in which the peaking comes into effect. “As soon as possible” is not a commitment but just a formality. The accord is laced with such non-binding and meaningless words. It became one of the most criticised documents in the history of climate negotiation. However, the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change has clearly said 2015 should at least be the peaking year. Speaking at the Bella Centre, Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Chairman, IPCC, said, “We have clearly specified that if temperature increase is to be limited to between 2.0 and 2.4°C, global emissions must peak no later than 2015.”

The financial commitment of 100 billion dollars by 2020 does offer some hope for the least developed nations like Nepal. But the commitment of the fund has come so flexibly that it does not specify how the new fund will be generated. Some fear that the funds for other causes like health, poverty and education may be diverted to climate change. There is high probability of shifting of the funds, as no specific words have been used in the accord.

The least developed nations have demanded separate bodies to mobilise the adaptation fund and the total mobilisation of the fund from that entity. The accord committed to establishing Copenhagen Green Climate Fund. It has been diplomatically written that significant amount of the fund will be mobilised through this channel but it doesn’t talk about the channel for remaining fund mobilisation.

The main concern of Nepal was the melting of the Himalayas and its adverse effect on the livelihood of the people downstream. Nepal has linked the issue to its existence, as the mountains are one of the major identities of the nation. Nepal can claim that its efforts were successful, as mountains made it to the vulnerability list but the world leaders did not talk about Himalayas in the main plenary unlike the sea-level rise or tropical rain forests. In a press meet by US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton inside the Bella Centre, she talked about the low land countries, small island countries, African nations but did not mention a word about the Himalayas. That means highland areas like Nepal are not on the priority as the low land areas of Bangladesh or Maldives. The only gain has been that Himalayas got a better profile in COP 15 than before.

The accord sets two degrees centigrade rise in temperature as the upper limit of the global warming, which is more than what the least developed countries had been demanding -- 1.5 degrees. Most of the things that have been included in the accord are not applicable to the United States of America, the largest emitter of green house gas emissions, as it is not party to the Kyoto Protocol. USA has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, documented in 1997, till date. President Obama did not even talk about the Kyoto Protocol in the speech made at COP 15 and has not given a green signal to move towards its ratification.

Most countries are in favour of continuation of Kyoto Protocol and the first commitment period of Kyoto Protocol will end in 2012. The Copenhagen meet was expected to come up with clear-cut ideas on the post-Kyoto period but it did not talk about it very specifically.

The rift between the developed and developing countries is widening and none of the factions is ready to compromise. The US and the rest of the developed nations want the developing nations like India and China to come up with reduction target of emissions but the latter argue that the developed nations have already emitted enough and the rest of the world has the right to emit to that much.

The concluding point of the accord states, “We call for the assessment of the implementation of this accord to be completed by 2015.” This only creates more confusion. Since there will be COP 16 in Mexico in 2010 and COP 17 in South Africa in 2011, what will be the focus of those meetings if the present political accord is implemented? Any COP meeting before 2015 will be futile.

The Copenhagen conference on climate change has put climate negotiations off track and dismantled the entire system under the UNFCCC and created more confusion and controversies. Till now, the focus had been on international negotiations only but time has come that nations take a new approach and find ways to adapt through local resources.