Soros Says Copenhagen Climate Summit Was A Failure

By Naureen Malik | DOW JONES NEWSWIRES | Jan 15, 2010

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Billionaire investor George Soros on Thursday said December's summit on climate change in Copenhagen was "a failure" and that the event, after tremendous buildup "delivered very little."

Speaking at the 2010 Summit on Climate Risk at the U.N., Soros urged the 520 or so institutional investors gathered to lead the charge on green investments. Earlier in the day, four investment groups representing institutional investors such as the California Public Employees Retirement System, or Calpers, representing $13 trillion in assets, called for stronger action from world governments on climate change and for a price on carbon to remove uncertainty in investing in clean technologies.

The calls come after last month's conference in Copenhagen, where countries failed to reach a legally-binding agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and take the steps needed to finance those efforts. Developed and developing nations clashed over who would pay for the efforts to curb global warming. The Copenhagen conference produced a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times to curb the worst effects of climate change. It also reiterated a goal of rich nations to jointly mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

Earlier Thursday at the conference, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said a growing number of countries need to sign onto the accord reached in Copenhagen, adding the meeting nearly failed, but that the tentative accord hashed out in the final hours is "quite an important step forward."

Climate-change legislation is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate, after a bill passed the House last summer. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Thursday that he expects climate change legislation this spring, but warned it would fail without bipartisan support.

Soros said that while the Obama administration was trying to take a constructive role in the fight against climate change, the U.S. was a laggard when it came to addressing the problem, adding he was impressed by how the Chinese government has "internalized" climate issues in its development plans.

Following Copenhagen's disappointing result and slow political progress in the U.S. and elsewhere, "I feel that I've got to get more engaged," Soros said.

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