On Friday, December 18th, the climate talks taking place in Copenhagen drew to a close. It was a meeting between 192 nations on the best ways for them to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in their respective countries, and combat the effects of global warming.
There were a lot of high hopes riding on this conference, and it seems to have concluded in a good place but not exactly where officials were hoping. During this conference there were many setbacks and disagreements, as would be expected with a conference involving this many different nations. Among them were issues of financial support from developed countries for countries still in the developing stage. Also was the problem of verification of progress made in developed countries.
In an effort to boost the talks, the United States agreed to a $100 billion per year contribution to poor nations. This came with two conditions: one being there must be some sort of agreement reached before the talks concluded, the second that all nations must agree to a system of verification for the funding to continue.
By the conclusion of the talks, an agreement had been drawn up regarding greenhouse gas emissions for both developed and developing nations. The draft stated that developed nations would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, and developing nations would work on their emissions, with reports on their progress. To verify this progress would be a panel, establishing progress and also the financial support of developed countries.
Although this is simply a draft to be finalized at a later date, all the countries involved see it as a huge step towards fighting global warming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/science/earth/19climate.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp