DESPITE the belated but spirited movements on the issue of capping emissions by the major international players in the developed world and the industrial giants in the developing world, the prospects of reaching a global climate change compact to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol at the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark in December remains daunting.

This view by Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon at a post-Cabinet news conference yesterday, follows an opinion that was published yesterday by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Mr. Kamalesh Sharma, entitled “Copenhagen: A Deal is a Matter of Focus and Justice”, where he stated, “The news on climate change from the Asia Pacific Economic Summit in Singapore has been sobering, mixed and disappointing. It means that expectations as to what can be achieved at Copenhagen have clearly changed. We are told by some that it is too late to reach a legally binding treaty, and that all the world should hope for is some form of political commitment and framework. This is a low level of ambition, and a crushing disappointment for those for whom climate change is a matter of life and death. It is a betrayal of a universal need for an early solution.”

Dr. Luncheon explained that the Guyana delegation to the Copenhagen meeting, which will be led by President Bharrat Jagdeo and Chairman of the National Toshaos Council, Yvonne Pearson, will be leaving shortly, probably after the President returns from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The Head of State is currently in Brazil “meeting his fellow Heads of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) with the intention of sharing information about mutual positions to be taken at Copenhagen”, and would be travelling from there to Trinidad for the CHOGM.