Dynamic Business

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd fears it is unlikely that an agreement will be reached at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, telling delegates attending the conference that previous attempts from a number of nations to work on a new agreement have so far failed.

Rudd said the summit has highlighted a major divide between developing and “rich” nations, and that those countries run the risk of “being so consumed with petty nationalism of the past that we turned instead against each other.”

Attending delegates have also expressed frustration with the last days of the conference, with world leaders no closer to any sort of binding resolution. Many developing countries, including the G77 have accused richer nations of attempting to organise a deal that would allow them to continue developing environmentally-harmful emissions while giving no assistance to the developing world in combating climate change.

Rudd said all the fighting is getting in the way of a real decision being made.

“I fear a triumph of form over substance, I fear a triumph of inaction over action. Let us instead resolve to decide our future,” he said.