Cancun – another climate anticlimax?

This year’s climate summit in November in Cancun, Mexico is approaching and the final round of UN climate talks has got under way in China. Basically it means that the delegates gather to prepare negotiations for the Cancun summit, but the executive climate secretary at UN Christiana Figueres has already cast a shadow on the outcome of the summit.

Before the meeting in China she said that it is “naïve” to expect “one climate agreement that will solve everything right now” and played down expectations of a legally binding deal.

That is not only bad news for the environmental activists and the future climate, but also for the companies who work in the sustainable energy industry.

At the moment the UN, the EU and the American government are all trying to define the best solution for a greener and better environment, but so far it seems as only the EU are getting somewhere in defining real goals and agreements.

The different announcements means the world to the green energy companies as they plan their investment according to expected demands. Policy making plays a major role in that matter and the uncertainty in American energy policy has already made large wind power developers cut down investments.

The climate summit in November could or should help define some shared goals and regulations and thereby help the energy companies, but Christina Figueres’ statement makes me wonder if Cancun will be the new Copenhagen. For the future certainty in energy policy I really hope not – we do not need another anticlimax.