Doing more in less time?

While the melting rate of the North Pole sea ice is above average yet again this summer the most important world leaders, who gathered for the G8 summit in L'Aquila, have missed another opportunity to make a step in the right direction.

Last Thursday the leaders of the 17 largest economies in the world (G8, G5, EU and Australia, Indonesia and South Korea) have signed a declaration based on 'nationally appointed limitations'. This is basically an empty shell as there are no exact figures mentioned, no binding agreements made and no sanctions agreed should one fail to meet the limitations.

With the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen on the horizon it has again become painfully clear that all the keyplayers are dug into their trenches. The rootcause for this can be found in the deadlock between the developed and developing nations. The developed nations require the developing nations to commit themselves to strict targets as the majority of the increase in future CO2 emmissions come from these countries. The developing nations on their turn will only cooperate if the developed countries take the lead in CO2 reductions, fund measurements in the developing world and if these targets do not intervene with the desired social and economic growth. Their keymessage remains 'you made this mess, you clean it up'. They have some valid points.

But they need to find common ground soon in order to make Copenhagen the success it needs to be. The melting sea ice at the North Pole, one of the most visible indicators of global warming, is giving us an alarming signal once more: it is again melting more rapidly this summer then the 30 year mean. Although it is not yet as extreme as the recordbreaking melt of 2007 we are frightingly close to that event. 

Let's hope that the melting ice can cool the heated discussions amongst worldleaders so they can focus on what has to be realized in Copenhagen; a comprehensive and robust approach to climate change. If they continue to push tough decisions forward we continue to get less time to achive more.