The outcome of the COP15 has left much of the world in disappointment, Reportage enviro Danish Correspondent Jeppe Funder reports from Copenhagen.

The COP15 comes to an inconclusive end. Picture: Jeppe Funder.

The COP15 conference is over. The world is left with a non-legally binding agreement and a document full of intentions, but without targets or signatures.

Only late night efforts particularly by Barack Obama and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao lead to an agreement in Copenhagen. But the agreement satisfies nobody, it is not legally binding, it is not signed by all countries and does not have a set CO2 emissions target. The agreement sets the maximum temperature rise to two degrees, but how the goal will be reached is still unclear.

Countries have been left to report back on how much CO2 they are willing to cut with these numbers to be added to the document. Countries are free to sign the agreement or they can choose not to, as their signature has no consequences.

Negotiations went on for over 24 hours before the final ‘Copenhagen Accord‘ was published. According to multiple sources the Chinese Government was one of the main obstacles of a larger agreement, as they refused – and still refuse – to sign an agreement that allows UN inspections to verify actual emission cuts.

The line of dissappointed parties is growing by the hour. The union of developing nations, the G77, accused the Danish Goverment of not being an impartial leader of the negotiations.

“What has happened today confirms what we have suspected all along: That a deal will be pushed through by the United States with the assistance of Denmark,” lead negotiator of the G77 Lumumba Stanislaus De-Aping told reporters at a press conference.

General Secretary of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo told Politiken.dk, “we are sending a death sentence to the small island states.”

Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has taken a lot of heat for his negotiation tactics which ultimately didn’t result in a legally binding agreement. Yet he told Berlingske.dk that is still proud of the outcomes of the COP15.

“We’ve made a difference Denmark can be proud of by bringing the world’s decisive negotiations power to the same table. Denmark can’t deliver the results, we can only deliver the frame.”

The frame is now the Copenhagen Accord. Analysts hope that more countries will support the document and another climate meeting in Germany early 2010 will result in more progress. If not, the pressure will be on once again, when the COP16 takes place in Mexico in December 2010.