Copenhagen comes to an end

21.12.2009

After an intense two weeks of negotiating in Copenhagen, the Climate Change Conference ended in chaos, with the 192 nations forced to go back to the drawing board to agree a legally binding deal on emissions.

On Saturday 19^th December a loose deal was passed, that was aimed at limiting temperature rises to less than 2C. The US and four other large countries agreed to the deal, however critics at the conference said the deal was ‘full of holes and lacked a timetable’. Problems occurred with the deal when developing countries didn’t want to sign up to legally binding targets. 

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, arrived back in the UK on Saturday 19^th December at 3am, to say ‘much more had to be done to achieve a legally binding, properly funded agreement.’

Critics reported that the deal contained almost nothing that environmentalists had hoped for and even the most modest goals weren’t met. 

This news comes as nations accept climate change as "one of the greatest challenges of our time".

Visit the official Copenhagen Climate Change Conference website for further news updates.