After two weeks of intense negotiating and wrangling global leaders finally agreed on the “Copenhagen Accord”, which was finalised during the early hours of Saturday morning. The text which was agreed to has disappointed EU leaders, who had been hoping that more ambitious targets would be set, and has many countries and regions, including the EU, looking ahead to the prospect of a more ambitious deal being reached in Mexico in 2010. Nevertheless there were words of cautious optimism as well, with several EU leaders seeing the landmark as a basis for further progress.

Swedish Presidency

Speaking after the conclusion of the conference,  Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt admitted that he had hoped for a more ambitious deal. However he also argued that  “It is a first step, an important step. What we wanted to achieve when we came here to Copenhagen was to get us out of the deadlock... And now we have seen countries make efforts and set goals. Even countries that said they wouldn’t make any commitments have presented figures”.

European Commission

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, on the other hand declared he would “not hide my disappointment”, but went on to echo Mr Reinfeldt’s sentiments saying “It’s also fair to say that this was the first time we could put, in an agreement at this level, the actions that have now been pledged by many other parties, parties that so far had not committed to these kinds of actions.”

Summarising the outcomes of the conference, he went on to say, that “This was the first experiment in working together, there are important points that have been agreed…But the level of agreement is honestly not what we have been hoping for”.

European Parliament

Meanwhile the verdict of the European Parliament delegation that went to Copenhagen was far more pessimistic about what has been achieved. Jo Leinen, a German MEP who headed up the delegation and is also chairman of the environment Committee at the European Parliament, said “The agreement in Copenhagen is a huge disappointment and postpones climate protection to a later date”.

This, he explained, was because “The document lacks a long-term vision for 2050 nor have short-term targets for 2020 either been laid down in the final document. The present commitments of industrialized countries will by no means meet the CO2 reduction requirements stated by the scientific panel of the United Nations”.

Vice-Chairman of the delegation and EPP MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz, released a statement together with Vice-Chairwoman of the EPP Group, Corien Wortmann-Kool, regretting the fact that “neither a political accord nor even a binding legal agreement could have been concluded here in Copenhagen”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the ALDE Group leader and Belgian MEP, was even more damning, saying “An accord that is noted, as opposed to adopted, is hardly much to be enthusiastic about. There is no escaping the sense of a missed opportunity to agree binding emissions reductions”, adding that “this cannot be the last word.”

The President of the European Parliament, Polish MEP Jerzy Buzek, preferred to focus on the positive implications of the process. He explained that “Copenhagen will only be a first step. We must learn the lessons of how to improve the negotiating process.”

Civil Society

Given the level of disappointment amongst EU leaders, it comes as no surprise that environmental groups were highly critical of the Accord as well. Speaking about the EU’s negotiating stance throughout the conference, Jason Anderson the Head of EU Climate and Energy Policy at WWF said “Poor result of the negotiations demonstrates that Europe’s decision to make their pledges largely dependant on action by others has failed to prove an effective negotiating strategy. As a result, not only is the deal brokered in Copenhagen largely toothless, but Europe's reduction ambitions remain mired at 20%, a level far below what is needed, achievable and affordable.”

Another outcome of the EU’s negotiating strategy, as Tim Gore, the EU climate policy adviser at Oxfam, explained, is that the EU was “squeezed out of the deal” in Copenhagen. “The EU had some real leverage to exert in Copenhagen, but allowed the US and China to dominate the play”.