AMY GOODMAN: We are back in New York, but the climate summit in Copenhagen did come to a close on Saturday, when Democracy Now! was still there, with the world's nations reluctantly agreeing "to take note of," but not endorse, a non-binding accord President Obama announced Friday night. Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change, described the deal as a, quote, "modest success" and a "letter of intent."

In a recorded speech Friday night, President Obama declared that an agreement had been reached after a closed-door session with the leaders of Brazil, China, India and South Africa.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today we've made meaningful and unprecedented--made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen. For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change.

AMY GOODMAN: The twelve-page agreement seeks
to limit global warming to a maximum of a two degree Celsius rise in temperature. But it does not specify targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

During a brief question-and-answer period restricted to the White House traveling press corps, President Obama defended the non-binding nature of the agreement.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It will not be legally binding, but what it will do is allow for each country to show to the world what they're doing, and there will be a sense on the part of each country that we're in this together, and we'll know who is meeting and who is not meeting the mutual obligations that have been set forth.

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LUCIA GREEN-WEISKEL
BEORGE MONBIOT

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