Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

LEGAL STATUS
The Accord, reached between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, contains no reference to a legally binding agreement, as some developing countries and climate activists wanted.

Neither is there a deadline for transforming it into a binding deal, though UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it needed to be turned into a legally binding treaty next year.

The accord was merely "recognised" by the 193 nations at the Copenhagen summit, rather than approved, which would have required unanimous support. It is not clear whether it is a formal UN deal.

US agrees to reduce farm greenhouse gases
Dec. 19, 2009, 8:00 am   
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The United States will nearly triple spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farms to $130 million a year in the next four years, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced at the U.N. global climate talks in Copenhagen this week.

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Agriculture accounts for 6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and 14 percent worldwide. Sources include animal digestive gas, decaying manure, fertilizer emissions and burning of crop residue.

"In the course of adopting this decision, I know both developed and developing countries cannot all be happy. But through the adoption of the 'Copenhagen Accord,' you will be able to get everything you need, even though not all of us have achieved all you wanted," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told reporters late Saturday morning as the conference was ending.

The accord that was finally adopted by consensus after an all-night debate and only after its initial rejection by the chair of the conference is a compromise political agreement drawn up by the United States and the U.K. and endorsed late Thursday by the major developing economies of China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Nations that adopt the accord, which goes into effect immediately, agree to work to ensure an increase in global temperature over the coming years does not exceed 2 degrees, the level above which climatologists warn of irreversible climate change due to global warming.