Despite the fact that it was one of the countries that helped to draft the final accord, South Africa has come out against the Copenhagen Accord, criticizing the fact that the accord is in no way legally binding.

Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa’s environment minister, plus two of the country’s negotiators attribute some of the blame to Denmark, the host country. They say that Denmark created the feeling that that country was actually trying to force its own position on climate change on the other participating nations.

At the beginning of the conference, South Africa angrily left the meeting after a draft proposal from Denmark was leak. The proposal indicated that developing countries should have to cut larger amounts of emissions than rich countries. This immediately set developing countries on edge, breeding an atmosphere of mistrust.

Things didn’t improve when Denmark produced an 11th hour draft that, according to South African negotiator Joanne Yawitch, was “seriously problematic”.

In order to produce an accord that South Africa was more comfortable with, negotiators worked late into the night, editing the Danish proposal, Yawitch said.

Not only is the Copenhagen accord not legally binding, but it was also not formally approved. Instead, the delegates all agreed to “take note” of the accord. What that means, exactly, isn’t clear.

And South Africa is not the only country unsatisfied with the outcome of the Copenhagen summit. Cuba, Sudan, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are a few of the countries that are calling the accord unacceptable and protesting that the proper process was not used in order to come up with the accord.

Despite the protests against the Copenhagen accord, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon defends the accord, calling it a positive step towards a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is not perfect at this time, but it was a very important and very significant step forward,” he said