I blame Bono for the Copenhagen failure

So who or what is to blame for the failure of the Copenhagen gathering to achieve what most people hoped for? Polly Toynbee says that the nature of politics is to blame. Personally I blame U2’s Bono. I don’t blame him for the failure of world leaders to agree a legally-binding agreement, of course. But I do blame him for the unrealistic expectations that were raised in the run-up to the meeting.

Issue-based campaigning, of which the climate change movement is the latest example, came into its own with the debt-relief campaign of Jubilee 2000, which the Irish singer spearheaded. Since then, every global issue has been approached in much the same way as Jubilee 2000: through a mass-based, awareness-raising campaign which culminates in one meeting, be it the G8 meeting in Gleneagles or Copenhagen this year, where key politicians are meant to meet, succumb to the pressure and agree a new policy.