ALDE group leader, Guy Verhofstadt, manifested his bitter disappointment today at the conclusion of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen that brought together a record number of countries with the urgent objective of reaching an agreement that would limit global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius.

“An accord that is noted, as opposed to adopted, is hardly much to be enthusiastic about,” said Verhofstadt. “There is no escaping the sense of a missed opportunity to agree binding emissions reductions.”

Although there is a reference to the need to make sufficient emissions reductions to avoid the oft-mentioned max 2° increase, no specific timetable is provided for achieving this. After months of preparations, the real negotiations were simply left too late and the political will was absent to clinch an agreement.

China bears a large part of the responsibility for failure by refusing to accept any reporting or verification and the US was not prepared to commit to the kind of reductions necessary to make an agreement worth having.

“The longer we wait to make serious reductions in our carbon emissions, the more difficult it will become to avoid the tipping point and the greater the cost of action.”

 “This cannot be the last word. We now count on the US and China to turn this document into a far-reaching, binding and verifiable agreement over the next few months. For the sake of all those peoples around the globe for whom climate change threatens their very existence, the collective membership of the UN cannot fail this, arguably their greatest test of collective political will.”