Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, claims top scientist

London, Dec 3(ANI): James Hansen, the scientist who has done extensive research to take notice of the looming danger of global warming, has said that next week's Copenhagen climate change summit will collapse, as any agreement arising out of the negotiations would be deeply flawed.

Hansen, who has also contributed to further understanding of the Earth's climate through the development and use of global climate models, said: "I would rather want it to fail, because if people accept that as being the right track, it would be wrong because it's a disaster track."

"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," The Guardian quoted Hansen, as saying.

Hansen, in repeated appearances before Congress since 1989, has tried to educate politicians about the causes of global warming and to prod them into action to avoid its most catastrophic consequences.

He is also vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes - in which permits to pollute are bought and sold - which are seen by the EU and other Governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy.

Hansen is also fiercely critical of U. S. President Barack Obama and former U. S. Vice President Al Gore, who has won a Nobel peace prize for his efforts to get the world to act on climate change, saying that politicians have failed to meet what he regards as the moral challenge of our age.

"We don't have a leader who is able to grasp it and say what is really needed. Instead we are trying to continue business as usual," he said. (ANI)