- oops we failed again
It ended with a whimper. Humanity should be so lucky.
After 12 days of bitter arguments, leaked documents, sit-ins and arrests, negotiators agreed it would be the lowest common denominator all around.
Poor countries didn’t want rich countries verifying their results. They got what they wanted.
Rich countries didn’t want citizens to sacrifice their cushy lifestyles. They got what they wanted.
After eight drafts, at 1:30 AM Mexican president Felipe Calderon announced that they had signed an accord in which nobody committed to much of anything. No targets, no legal obligations. The Copenhagen Accord, as it is being called, mentions the importance of keeping temperature rises under two degrees Celsius but makes no commitments to do anything about it. Any mention of keeping temperature rises under 1.5 degrees was scrapped.
The US, India, South Africa and China came up with the draft, and the EU, Brazil and Mexico have since jumped aboard. Obama clearly took the lead, and having spent less than a day in Copenhagen, he’s on the plane homeward. The G77 group of poor countries are saying the draft was announced before they were consulted.
The most concrete thing in the accord are provisions for $30 billion in funding for climate change adaptation in poor countries by 2012, and another $100 billion a year after 2020. In other words, “we couldn’t prevent it, here’s some cash to deal with it.”
Under the accord, nations will basically decide for themselves what if anything they’ll do about climate change. Stephen Harper, who was not involved with the accord, will love it.
Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo called Copenhagen “a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame.”
Lydia Baker, Save the Children’s Policy Adviser, remarked, “World leaders have effectively signed a death warrant for many of the world’s poorest children. Up to 250,000 children from poor communities could die [due to climate change] before the next major meeting in Mexico at the end of next year.”
Mexico has already promised legally binding targets from COP16, and has urged that negotiations start now. But even a year’s delay is Russian roulette for the planet.
Assuming this goes through, and it looks highly probable, you could call this failure a crisis of leadership I suppose. But leadership was proudly on display outside the Bella Centre, on the streets among the demonstrators. They are still out there chanting “3-5-0 Survival!”
Leadership was on display among municipalities, small businesses and social entrepreneurs developing innovative carbon reduction strategies and programs throughout the world. It is only the official “leaders” who aren’t getting their shit together, and frankly I didn’t expect them to.
Change won’t come from those who have gained the most from a suicidal civilization. It will come from those with the most to lose.
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2009.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-…
‘….., and when the meeting finished at 6am, the discussions had become bogged down by “procedural objections” raised by China, India and Sudan. ‘
and ‘Yukio Hatoyama. In what was perceived as a significant diplomatic snub, China sent their vice foreign minister, He Yafei. The leaders were guided through the text of a draft agreement, but according to one witness, the Chinese negotiators frustrated the process by intervening “after every point of substance”.
and ‘…..In his speech, Mr Wen insisted that his country was “fully committed to reaching” its voluntary targets on reducing carbon emissions, but in a sign that the emergency meeting had done little to improve the fraught relations between China and the US, Mr Obama made a suggestive last-minute alteration to his speech as he walked between the emergency meeting and the plenary room.
He also criticised China’s reluctance to be transparent about its actions: “I don’t know how you have an international agreement where we are all not sharing information and ensuring we are meeting our commitments. That doesn’t make sense. It would be a hollow victory.” Furious at this remark, which he perceived as a slight on his nation’s honesty, Mr Wen returned to his hotel and instructed low-level delegates to resume negotiations.’
and ‘ The tense US-China relations came to a head mid-afternoon, when Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were left sitting in a meeting with three low-level Chinese delegates. According to a source, the US President clearly regarded Mr Wen’s absence as a major diplomatic insult, and snapped: “It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions.”
and ‘ 6pm Mr Obama attended only his second meeting of the day with Mr Wen. He was forced to leave the Bella Centre and drive to the Chinese Premier’s hotel.’
Conclusion : Mr Harper wasted his time going to Copenhagen because the Chinese have absolutely no interest in any verifiable binding agreement.
What next ?
Check the labels on every possible purchase. If you see ‘Made in China’ put it back on the shelf, inform the clerk/owner you will not buy any Chinese product and ask for a Canadian made item or from Bangladesh etc.
Repeat until Beijing gets the message.