WHEN the board game, Trivial Pursuit, was at the height of its popularity, being asked to name famous Belgians was one of the trickier challenges to be set.
Beyond the TV detective with the waxed moustache and a former champion cyclist, it's never been easy to reel off famous sons or daughters of Belgium
Spare a similar thought this week for Copenhagen.
The circus has left town – and there is a lot of clearing up to do.
In the build-up to the summit, the people promoting the Danish capital to visitors said they hoped it would re-invigorate interest in their city – displaying merit beyond the Little Mermaid or the Tivoli Gardens.
Well, after two weeks at the epicentre of global attention, the city has indeed earned itself a new image. A new name even.
With the tap of a headline writer's keyboard, the city has become “Nopenhagen” or, worse still, “No-Hopenhagen”.
It's not necessarily the fault of the hosts of the 2009 Climate Conference that two weeks of debate has not delivered the sort of results much of the waiting world wanted.
The non-binding pact, called the Copenhagen Accord, was not adopted by consensus at the summit in Denmark.
Instead, after two weeks of frantic negotiations, the 193-nation conference ended on Saturday with delegates merely taking note of the deal.
No matter how the legion of spin-doctors accompanying the delegations of 193 nations try to dress it up, it's a disappointing result that sees criticism levelled at many who took part.
The Accord includes a recognition to limit temperature rises to less than 2°C and promises to deliver £18.5bn of aid for developing nations over the next three years.
The agreement outlines a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change. It also includes a method for verifying industrialised nations' reduction of emissions. The US had insisted that China dropped its resistance to this measure.
Quite where events in Copenhagen during December, 2009, end up in history remains to be seen. Next stop for the global climate change juggernaut is Bonn, in six months, where the watching world will wait for more progress.
If there's none there, the headline writers will be rolling up their sleeves once again.
MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group.
