Our December issue features a debate on whether or not the Copenhagen talks on climate change will result in meaningful steps to combat greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Party’s Caroline Lucas remains “cautiously hopeful” that Copenhagen will achieve meaningful results, whilst Conservative MEP Roger Helmer disparages the entire notion of man-made global warming and “breast-beating about the importance of climate change”.

However, whilst there may be lively debate in some media outlets, for politicians global warming is a done deal. For Gordon Brown, leaving Copenhagen without a successor to Kyoto would rank as a major political failure. It would mean the world had failed to heed his calls about there being “50 days to save the planet” – a repudiation of one of his key international priorities.

He has heralded a “breakthrough” in EU climate change talks this week, but that is not that remarkable. All EU countries have already committed themselves to a hugely ambitious - foolhardy – target of 15 per cent of all energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

Convincing the USA, China and India about the merits of EU proposals is another matter. How people view Brown’s last year in office is tied to results from Copenhagen. But, with likely resistance from developing world nations to his plans and constant insinuations from the White House that Barack Obama will not be attending, from a political perspective he may regret attaching such importance to this cause.

(Photo: Getty)