Hansen: 'Copenhagen climate summit must fail'
Updated on 03 December 2009
Top scientist James Hansen, who raised alarm about global warming, says it would be better for the world and future generations if the Copenhagen climate summit ends in failure.
The director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said any deal emerging from the negotiations would be disastrously flawed.
"I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it's a disaster track," Hansen said in an interview with The Guardian.
"The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation.
"If it is going to be the Kyoto-type thing then [people] will spend years trying to determine exactly what that means."
Two decades ago the America scientist campaigned to raise awareness of the potentially catastrophic impact of rising climate temperatures. He has since been hailed as the "grandfather of global warming."
The 68-year-old is opposed to the "cap and trade" system favoured by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions.
Hansen has said he plans to boycott the Copenhagen conference because governments were seeking an agreement to limit emissions through a cap and trade system, which allows pollution quotas to be bought and sold.
"The developed nations want to continue basically business as usual so they are expected to purchase indulgences to give some small amount of money to developing countries. They do that in the form of offsets and adaptation funds," he told The Times.
Other the past weeks Channel 4 News has been asking the UK's top scientists their views on how to mitigate climate change. Read their views about ten ideas to save the planet here.
