THERE were those nay-sayers who were decrying that nothing came out of the discussions at Copenhagen on the climate change deal, but having read the newspapers I hope that they will be a bit more constructive in their criticisms next time. The Stabroek News carried an article that China and India, two major countries, have joined almost all other major greenhouse gas emitters in signing up to the climate change accord, boosting a deal strongly favoured by the United States. The story further states that more than 100 nations have now endorsed the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding agreement reached after two weeks of tortuous wrangling at a 194 nation summit in December.

Having these two big countries sign the agreement bodes well since the accord plans $100B a year in climate aid for developing nations from 2020 and seeks to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times.

Guyana was instrumental in bringing the issue of climate change to the fore and has put in significant amounts of resources and efforts toward enlightening the rest of the world on what can be done to effectively aid in the mitigation of climate change.

I hope that the critics will recognise now that the Copenhagen meeting was fruitful after all and will not be so quick to criticise for the sake of criticisms.