World views Copenhagen conference as a total failure

The world has reacted strongly to the Copenhagen climate talks, expressing frustration and commenting that it stopped short of any end result.

Even the campaigners and environmentalists were left stunned at what they viewed as a total disappointment.

At the end of the 193-nation UN summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, there was no binding deal for combating global warming, a move led by the United States and China, the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases.

The Danish government had been hoping for a positive outcome, but the Danes themselves expressed their frustration after being left with no binding deal.

India called the climate talks a complete failure and said there were no legally binding targets that the developed countries would have to meet.

"We have failed to agree at a sort of solution which will lead us to a viable action plan towards controlling climate change," Suparno Banerjee, spokesperson of the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment, said on Sunday.

Before the conference closed, Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva said only a miracle could rescue the talks.

President Hugo Chavez said that negotiations were conducted in the wrong way and accused world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, of only seeking a face-saving agreement.

He went on to add that the United States should join the Kyoto Protocol and empower it and answer to the world in a transparent way.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described capitalism and materialism as the root causes of the world's environmental crisis.

Several other nations also opposed the deal championed by Obama and five emerging economies, including India and China.

The summit agreement made on Saturday, December 19 stopped far short of a full endorsement of the plan, which sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degree Celsius rise over pre-industrial times.

The plan does not specify greenhouse gas cuts needed to achieve the 2 degree Celsius goal that is seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms, and rising seas.