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.
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
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.
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