Is the Copenhagen meeting past history?
The Copenhagen meeting ended without any legal binding agreement. There were not a single country that wanted to commit themselves in detail about to what they intend to do. On such a result it is not a big surprise that many think of the Copenhagen Meeting as past history.
What was supposed to become something of importance for the future, will perhaps merely be seen as an unimportant incidence in the past history. A story that will only be remembered and refreshed if the only decision from that meeting eventually sometime in the future will be proven as a failed decision, a failed vague commitment of which the goal was not achieved.
So what was the decision of the Copenhagen Meeting? Well, the politicians agreed upon that the average world temperature must not increase more than 2 degrees celsius!
Huh?! As if the politicians can make laws about how the weather is going to be! …
Hopefully, more and more people will (soon) begin to realize that something more than political ‘hot air’ talking is needed.
The present status of the World’s Climate Politics is that the Kyoto Protocol remains as the guidelines until year 2012. However, this will not mean a great deal in particular because the USA and China hasn’t signed the Kyoto Agreement.
I would really like to know what you my visitors to this blog website mean about this!
Do you hope for a fair renewal of the Kyoto Protocol, a new deal that will save our climate?
Or do you belong to those who believe that we don’t need to do anything because the Global Warming Theory is a big scam. A a scam that has been busted by those who believe in the ClimateGate
Please make your comments here:
The COP15 Climate Meeting in Copenhagen ended without any legal binding agreements
I must admit that I am personally extremely disappointed that the results of the meeting were so poor (or maybe it is even more correct to say that there were no real results).
As I interpret the results it can be summarized to a political declaration that the average global temperature should not increase more than two degrees celsius. – Duh? – As if the politicians can make laws about how the weather is going to be in the future!
A more positive interpretation of the results is based on the facts that the USA and the European Union has committed themselves to donate money to countries in the Third World in order to make it possible for those countries to develop further in the most environmental friendly way. (However, it remains yet to be seen that the aid will be sufficient and that the money will be given to the right areas)
Another wishful thinking is that the negotiations will continue between all countries over the next 5 to 6 months, and that the negotiations will lead to a more committed protocol.
Comment (0)COP15 ended yesterday! But is the Climate Meeting in Copenhagen the end or the beginning?
One of the closing comments was the US President Barack Obama’s who indicated that ‘it’ was not ‘the’ end but the beginning. Well, that might be very correct. However, the big question is: Beginning of what? In worst case it could be the beginning to the end!
The meeting has been dominated by hostility. Inside the Bella Conference Center as well as outside.
Outside the building there has been several demonstrations, and environmental activists tried to enter the meeting with a claim that ordinary people should participate in order to give the negotiations a more common touch. The Copenhagen Police arrested several hundreds of the demonstrators.
Inside the building the politicians were more busy putting blame on each others, rather than finding a solution.
The biggest conflict has been between the industrialized countries and the developing countries of the Third World.
Representatives from the Third World countries accused the Danish Government and the USA for being responsible for the poor result, a ‘paper’ with good intentions that the global average temperature should not increase more than 2°.
But it is just a ‘paper’ not a legal binding document that specify: How? and Who are going to be legally binding to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions?
Copenhagen AND/OR Kyoto?
The negotiations at the climate meeting in Copenhagen is right now at a critical phase.
The African countries are reluctant to agree to the various suggestions from the industrialized countries. Instead they propose that the Kyoto Protocol continue to be the valid ’set of rules’. It was planned that the Kyoto Agreement would be terminated in year 2012, where it would be replaced by the Copenhagen agreement.
The African countries want the Kyoto rules to continue until year 2020. Such a suggested would of course create a dilemma for the USA and other countries that never signed the Kyoto Protocol.
Comment (1)Almost 40,000 marched in Copenhagen
Almost 40,000 protesters participated yesterday, Saturday in a large demonstration in Copenhagen. The demonstrators gathered at the Danish Parliament to march against the Bella Conference Center where COP15, the climate conference is held. The march went on for almost three hours and took place as a people’s festival. However, the Copenhagen Police arrested almost 1,000 persons because they suspected them to have planned organized violence and vandalism.
The official UN Climate Meeting is making slow progress, whereas several parallel meetings held by NGOs and climate activists are faster to agree on that actions to stop the global climate changes must start now instead of long political debates
Comment (0)COP15 opened with a quarrel between The Industrialized Countries & The Third World
COP15, the Climate Meeting in Copenhagen has now begun. But it is not all who are optimistic about how good the results of the meeting will be.
Several representatives of the developing countries in the Third World are complaining that the intentions of the industrialized countries of America and Europe are not enough, and in particular that there aren’t any strict consequences for those countries that don’t live up to the intended reduced CO2 emissions, even though the aimed for reductions are low.
The worries of The representatives of countries from the Third World has to be seen in the perspective of the missing results of the Kyoto Protocol. The USA never agreed to the Kyoto Protocol! – That the USA now seems to be willing to participate in a Copenhagen Agreement is of course ‘good news’. However the ‘bad news’ are that they aim for a protocol of good intentions, but without any strict legal binding commitments.
The Third World are also accusing Denmark’s Prime Minister for being a biased and partial host of the meeting. According to a leaked document Denmark has already (before the beginning of the meeting) made promises to other industrialized countries about which burdens should be put on the shoulders of the 3rd World Countries.
Comments (2)Important dates of the Copenhagen Meeting
6 December: Arrival of the delegates
7 December: Opening of the meeting
12 December: A large protesting demonstration in Copenhagen has been announced
15 December: The Ministers in charge of Environmental issues of each country meets to negotiate
17 December: Arrival of the Head of States and the Prime Ministers.
The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II’s Dinner party at Christiansborg Castle
18 December: The meeting closes, hopefully with a good agreement in place
Comment (0)Barack Obama goes to Oslo, Norway via Copenhagen, Denmark
Keep an eye on President Barack Obama on his next trip to Europe. He will make a stop in Copenhagen on his way to Oslo. In Copenhagen he will attend to the climate summit. Let us hope that his action there further entitles him to be the receiver of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
USA’s President Barack Obama makes a stop on 9 December in Copenhagen on his way to Oslo, where he will receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The US Government has already published one of the important announcements he will make at the climate meeting.
The USA has announced the planned reductions of the CO2 emissions: Compared to year 2005 the reductions that the USA is prepared to reduce by 2020 is 17%. The further reductions are 30% by 2025; and 42% by year 2030.
Comment (0)Will the result of the meeting in Copenhagen be a Good Agreement or Hot Air?
There are right now intense preparations of the political speeches that will be presented in Copenhagen at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. There have been other preparations: The leaders of the member countries of the European Union has met a month ago; and the Leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) met in Singapore on November 14-15.
The results of these preliminary meetings are not very promising. The announcements made after those meetings have been very political correct, and have given promises to work for a “good agreement in Copenhagen to enable the full, effective and sustainable implementation of the needed global actions to stop the climate changes”.
However, it is now obvious that there will not be reached any legal binding agreements in Copenhagen; and in the worst case, the results of the meeting in Copenhagen might be political correct intentions but without any binding commitments, then it will only be more ‘political hot air talk’. And more hot air will not help solving the global warming problems.
Hopefully the Copenhagen Meeting will be a stepping stone for more serious negotiations, leading to a good agreement that eventually will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the Kyoto Protocol that until 2012 sets the rules for how each country should deal with CO2 emissions and other pollution sources that have influence on the climate changes, such as the global warming.
Comments (2)December 2009 is just around the corner
Many has begun to count the days, not yet to X-mas, but to the meeting in Copenhagen arranged by the United Nations.
The agenda for the meeting COP15, is to reach a global agreement about how to reduce the emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. But as time goes on, more and more people get worried that the meeting will merely be a lot of nice words, and that the agreement of Copenhagen will not be more effective than the useless Kyoto Protocol.
Most of the world’s countries will send delegates, but already now it is obvious that the countries are very far from being able to reach an agreement. It appears that the countries can be placed in some groups:
The European Union, that recently have agreed on what they will propose in Copenhagen as the goals of CO2 reductions. The EU has also agreed upon how much they will give in aid to the developing countries, in order to make it possible to continue the development in the most environmental friendly way.
However, the developing countries do not agree to the ideas of the EU. In particular the African countries have argued that the first step should be a global agreement about how much the total CO2 emissions should be reduced; the next step should be a full commitment from the industrialized countries about how Europe and the USA will participate in the solution.
Many are skeptical about whether the Copenhagen meeting will result in a bad deal, or no deal at all. The reason for the skepticism is nourished by the dispute between Europe and the USA. Sweden’s Prime Minster F.Reinfeldt, representing the entire EU had a meeting with the USA President Obama few days ago; but after Reinfeldt’s return to Europe he expressed deep concern about the willingness of the USA to do their part.
About the US’ willingness to do something effective to save the climate of the world, then it should be kept in mind that the USA has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and even though the Kyoto agreement will remain as the set of rules until year 2012, then President Obama has no intention of implementing it.
The guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol are not enough! It is important the the agreement in Copenhagen is better, and demand more commitments from all countries, inclusive the USA.