Day 8 of the UNFCCCDespite the heavy snow, Tuesday—Day 8 of the UN Conference on Climate Change– brought a glimmer of hope in the quest to achieve a multi-lateral climate treaty between the 192 parties to the Climate Convention. The G77– a negotiating block representing 130 of the least developed nations– returned to talks after walking out early Monday morning in an attempt to strong-arm Western countries into contributing more funding to developing countries for climate adaptation. While today developing countries contribute more than 50% of the global carbon emissions, the Venezuelan Prime Minister commented that the current problem of climate change was not caused by current emissions, but by 150 years of industrialization in the North. The developing countries, too, he argues, have the right grow and prosper.
As these events unfolded at the conference, the UCSB delegation struggled to keep up with both the language of the conference and the fast-paced and often overwhelming atmosphere. Most of us arrived here Saturday evening and quickly learned how to keep warm while waiting to gain access to the conference. After registration, small groups broke off and spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the multitude of side exhibits offered all over the city. Highlights included the elaborate Hopenhagen Square– a central plaza that displayed a giant illuminated virtual world and a large Christmas tree with cycle-powered lights, several technology and art showcases describing local and national efforts towards innovating sustainability from around the world, and an electric car show which showcased new ride-share electric cars that were compact, affordable, and clean. The events displayed an innovative side of COP15 that does not garner much international media attention, but will play an important role nonetheless.
Monday marked our first full day of participation in the proceedings of the conference, and, unfortunately, a dismal and complicated day of negotiations. The first meeting I attended was a Plenary session of the Annex I signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Despite arriving 30 minutes early, a severe delay, a room change, and the above-mentioned Boycott of negotiations by the G77 countries set the stage for an impasse.
On a lighter note, later in the day I had the opportunity to hear the Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, his Undersecretary, Christina Johnson, and several leaders of the developed nations discuss their collaboration on the newly proposed Climate Renewable and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI), which seems a promising strategy for bringing innovative energy technologies to the developing world.
The progressive move by the US enlightened my position on our country's stance on climate change. Prior to this conference, I was under the assumption that our lack of participation and cooperation in UN negotiations around climate change meant a lack of recognition of climate change as a serious and time-sensitive issue. With this ambitious effort, however, the United States has taken first steps in showing the world that our government does have an interest, albeit a small one to date, in multilateral climate change initiatives. Many delegates do not share my optimism, however, and looked on with disdain at the lack of international focus on prominent issues such as deforestation, oceanic changes, and environmental justice.
This pessimism was particularly distinguished at the the YOUNGO meeting, which brought together youth leaders from around the world. The purpose of these daily meetings and the daily events held by the Youth Leaders was to discuss proposals set forth by the officially recognized youth delegation to the United Nations. The proposals focus on several issues, from global days of fasting in solidarity with the nations most harmed by climate change, increased transparency in the negotiations, and on the reality that today's youth will inherit this earth in whatever state decision makers leave it for us.
The progressive move by the US enlightened my position on our country's stance on climate change. Prior to this conference, I was under the assumption that our lack of participation and cooperation in UN negotiations around climate change meant a lack of recognition of climate change as a serious and time-sensitive issue. With this ambitious effort, however, the United States has taken first steps in showing the world that our government does have an interest, albeit a small one to date, in multilateral climate change initiatives. Many delegates do not share my optimism, however, and looked on with disdain at the lack of international focus on prominent issues such as deforestation, oceanic changes, and environmental justice.
This pessimism was particularly distinguished at the the YOUNGO meeting, which brought together youth leaders from around the world. The purpose of these daily meetings and the daily events held by the Youth Leaders was to discuss proposals set forth by the officially recognized youth delegation to the United Nations. The proposals focus on several issues, from global days of fasting in solidarity with the nations most harmed by climate change, increased transparency in the negotiations, and on the reality that today's youth will inherit this earth in whatever state decision makers leave it for us.
The global youth will settle for nothing less than a comprehensive plan that includes young people in the language of any future proposals and treaties. YOUNGO released its official statement today, which was distributed to individual delegates.
The last few days have been very fast paced and there is still plenty more to report on. Stay tuned for further updates.
Cheers from Copenhagen.
-Michael Hewitt
Mike,
ReplyDeleteAre things as bad as the US Media is making it sound in terms of the chances of anything meaningful (even non-binding agreements) coming out of Copenhagen? I was hoping one of you insiders could give me a better view of how good/bad things are looking. Tell everyone to keep up the good blogging.
James Hawkins
James,
ReplyDeleteI would say things have definitely developed more positively over the last 24 hours. There is a significant push by every level of participation to have a binding agreement by Friday but there is little hope that a legally binding anything will be put together. There have been agreements made; however, that look to have at least a common understanding and even a non-binding agreement that looks beneficial to many of the developing countries of the world. I was informed that there has been an agreement or understanding to actually set a cap of global temperature rise at 1-1.5 degrees above average which is a far cry from the 2-2.5 that was being discussed earlier--this is a very positive thing to hear and denotes a forward momentum in terms of reaching a binding agreement. There is still hope!