President Obama and other world leaders came to Copenhagen at the end of the two week climate conference in the hopes of ironing out the details of a real deal. Or at least appearing so. They couldn’t really afford, politically, to go back home with nothing to show.

What they could afford, it seems, is to throw a bunch of cash at the problem ($30 million over the next three years, up to $100 million by 2020), with very little structure in place to decide how it will be spent or what kind of difference it’s supposed to make.

While some good things certainly came out of the 2009 UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, we come away taking note of the things that are missing:

• No continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, parts of which expire in 2012
• No replacement of the Kyoto Protocol, in terms of a specific set of regulations and emissions targets that are legally binding
• No plan to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees
• No plan to reduce deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil, both major sources of CO2 emissions
• No mention of a 350ppm CO2 goal
• No reassurances for low-lying or drought-stricken countries that their future is anything but bleak

“The deal is a triumph of spin over substance. It recognizes the need to keep warming below 2 degrees but does not commit to do so,” said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International.

So what did we get?

A hurried and backdoor deal between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa that resulted in a three page document that proposes to be the seed of a more specific deal down the road. Wheeee. Because of the secretive nature of the negotiations, many countries denounced the deal on principle. It is continuing evidence of the preference of developed countries to talk big on climate change, but not actually take action.

Yet, there was a substantial change of heart among the Chinese, who for the first time agreed in principle that they would allow monitoring of their emissions, and requires industrialized countries to list specific individual targets for greenhouse gas reductions.

But clearly, Copenhagen will not go down in history as the time and place of the great turn around. Hopefully it won’t prove to be entirely the opposite.

Tags: climate change, copenhagen, global climate change, green business, greenhouse gas