Copenhagen chaos

The left would have us believe fighting carbon emissions isn't about limitations; it's an unprecedented opportunity for growth and development. The west isn't buying it, however. Thus the Copenhagen conference has descended into chaos. As if this was unexpected.

There's no way 200 countries (or however many) with competing interests are going to sit down together and reach an overall agreement on what amounts to limitations on energy usage.  All the talk about saving the planet is great but when it comes to the crunch every country is going to act in its own self-interest. It was therefore always going to be a miracle if anything substantive came out of Copenhagen.

Now after only a couple of days the conference has broken down with developing countries upset that they will not receive the financial assistance they deserve -- $200 billion demanded, versus $10 billion offered -- and are incensed that savvy western countries want anyone but the UN to act as the conduit for climate change funding.

But since all of the climate conferences to date have been long on talk and meaningless promises and short on action it's a mystery that anyone expected Copenhagen to produce anything substantive. As I've said all along, Copenhagen is nothing more than a gab-fest.