Faith leaders expressed strong disappointment at the agreement adopted on Saturday in Copenhagen, criticizing the deal for its lack of commitment from industrialized nations towards previously proposed emissions and financial targets as well as the lack of transparency that the agreement was reached under.

"Copenhagen was a missed opportunity by the industrialized countries to lead by example" said Kenyan professor Jesse Mugambi, a member of the WCC Working Group on climate change, in a statement released on Monday. "While countries like China and India came with concrete measures they have voluntarily taken to reduce CO2 emissions, they are not committed to do so as they are not members of the Annex 1 countries of the Kyoto Protocol."

"Most of the industrialized countries didn't show the needed commitment to lead the whole world in an effective way to address the challenges of climate change," he continued.

Drafted on Friday evening by representatives from the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, the Copenhagen Accord maintains that scientific thinking for keeping temperature increase below 2 degrees Celcius is important, but makes no commitments to reduce emissions to keep the temperature rise in check. The agreement's financial provisions for developing countries to aid in their adaptation to climate change also falls short of the 150 billion US dollars annually that many say is needed to produce effective results.

Christian Aid's senior climate change advocacy officer Nelson Muffuh called the Copenhagen Accord, "tragedy that will harm the many millions of people in developing countries who are already suffering the effects of climate change,"

"We hoped that sanity would prevail but powerful nations didn't come to negotiate. They came to play hardball," Muffuh said in a statement. "Lives will be lost as a result. Already more than 300,000 people a year die as a result of climate change. That number will go up."

"We hope all countries will look hard at themselves and think about how to reinvigorate this international process," he continued. "In particular, rich countries must increase the level of their ambition when they return to the negotiating table. What was on offer in Copenhagen was nothing like a fair and ambitious deal, so it is little wonder that some developing countries refused to sign."

Along with the lack of commitments in the deal, faith leaders also criticized the secrecy at which the Copenhagen Accord was produced – behind closed doors and among just a few countries.

"With a lack of transparency, the agreement reached this past week by some countries was negotiated without consensus but rather in secret among the powerful nations of the world," WCC Programme Executive on climate change Guillermo Kerber said. "This has proven to be a strong strike against multilateralism and the democratic principles in the UN system."

Despite disappointing outcomes, however, churches and faith organizations have pledged to continue their efforts towards reaching a fair and legally binding agreement on climate policy.