Climate change is already devastating poor people's lives on an appalling scale. Copenhagen was a unique opportunity to turn the world's course away from climate disaster and towards a safe future. But leaders of the major powers negotiated for their national interests instead of safeguarding our shared destiny and the talks ended with little more than agreement to keep talking.
Key recommendations
- Negotiations must get straight back on track to achieve a fair, ambitious, and binding deal in 2010 to tackle climate change.
- 2010 may be the last opportunity for climate negotiations to prove that they are an effective process for stopping climate change. Sustained and focused engagement must run throughout the year - at the political, scientific, technical, and public levels - to seize this critical chance to reach real agreement.