Several months ago, European leaders went to Copenhagen to save the planet. China, India
and Brazil on the other hand went to the climate negotiations in Denmark to showcase the changed distribution of power in the world.
Unsurprisingly, the Europeans came home empty-handed, shut out of the key negotiations and powerless despite what was meant to be a standard-setting promise of 20 percent cut in the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The US and the rising powers struck a non-binding deal, the value of which is still being determined.
Reading today’s cover story in The Times, the lesson the eco-friendly EU Commission seems to have drawn from this experience is that 20 percent emission cuts were not enough; the EU has to put sharper emissions cuts on the table “to inspire other countries to follow suit”.
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