Britain’s foreign minister has claimed that he fears the climate summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen will end without a satisfactory result. Mr Milliband is part of a group of five EU foreign ministers including Per Stig Moller (Denmark), Carl Bildt (Sweden), Alexander Stubb (Finland) and Bernard Kouchner (France), which are in Denmark ahead of the summit.
As reported in the Danish news source Politiken, Mr Milliband expressed concerns that hope for progress is at best limited. “There is a real risk that the world will be unable to reach a decent agreement in December,” Milliband said.
The five EU ministers have been travelling across Europe in recent weeks trying to shore up collective support, not just within the EU, but worldwide. Stig Moller, who invited his colleagues to Copenhagen for the talks, said this week’s meetings were highly important. “It is vital that we send a clear message that the world must stand together and reach a good agreement in Copenhagen,” Stig Moller said. “If we miss this opportunity it will fade away,” he claimed.
The group has agreed to work together to spread their message across the world in an effort to raise awareness of the issues surrounding climate change. This will see their respective embassies, numbering some 800 worldwide; exert greater pressure on the home countries to become more involved in the climate change proposals.
The five foreign ministers also said they planned to pen letters to world leaders to raise the profile of the climate change debate.
They won’t reach an agreement in Copenhagen because the US has not reached an agreement. The Waxman bill will not be suported in the Senate this October so the battle will continue to rage for at least another year. The American public are not interested in supporting another tax increase when they are in recession and I don’t blame them. And the media does not support Cap&Trade like they did a year ago so the greens missed their chance. Too bad, so sad.