Hopes of a legally binding treaty at the Copenhagen summit next month have gone up in a puff of smoke. Key negotiators say that a global treaty to fight climate change will be postponed by at least six months, possibly a year or more. Now it seems the best hope is for a politically binding agreement that has all the elements of the final deal, including specific targets and timetables for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
In the meantime, New Zealand has been called out by British correspondent Fred Pearce. Writing in the Guardian Weekly he says: "New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend to the Earth". In a no-punches-pulled article he describes the "greenhouse wash" that followed the promises made by countries 12 years ago when the Kyoto protocol was signed, identifying those that failed to deliver. After lining up the worst offenders he says: "But my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself around the world as clean and green." He might have added that New Zealand is one of the countries that is not sending its Head of State to Copenhagen to sit alongside others including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Lula Inacio da Silva. You can read Pearce's article here.
Images: Milford Sound, New Zealand; detail of Rachel Whiteread's Embankment (2005), Turbine Hall installation at the Tate Modern (the Tate Modern is an influential backer of the 10:10 campaign)
