Q&A: Copenhagen's united front

In the months leading up to Copenhagen, developing world leaders met multiple times to strategize and solidify their position on climate change. Because of their poverty levels, populations in developing regions are generally seen as the most vulnerable to changes in climate and subsequent extreme weather, such as droughts, flood, heat waves and rising sea levels.

Calestous Juma Image: Harvard University, Belfer Center

But since arriving at the conference, these developing world negotiators have hit several obstacles -- such as linkurl:leaked treaty drafts;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/09/copenhagen-summit-danish-text-leak and linkurl:rifts;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8403745.stm between China, India and the rest of the developing world -- that have called their authority in the debates into question. linkurl:Calestous Juma,;http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/231/calestous_juma.html from Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a contributor to the World Bank's 2010 report on development and climate change, corresponded with The Scientist through email on why the developing world is uniting against climate change and what...