Sunday, December 6th, 2009, marked the final convergence of delegates to negotiate terms for a climate change treaty.
Today—December 7th, 2009—marks the beginning of the biggest climate change conference in world history. Today we will begin to see if the last two years of talking will lead to serious action. Today we will start to see where the future of the environment lies. To quote a recent statement from the U.N.’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer:
“Time is up. Over the next two weeks governments have to deliver.”
Clik here to view.
Image source: en.cop15.dk
The number of nations planning to attend the event has risen over the 100 mark in the last few days. At least 15,000 delegates and 100 world leaders are expected to partake in the COP15 meeting over the next 2 weeks. Many have already begun to arrive in Copenhagen; some via green-striped trains to show their environmental commitment—one of which transported more than 400 U.N. officials, delegates, climate activists and journalists from Brussels, alone!
Some officials have also recently changed their travel plans for the sake of the conference—President Barack Obama is one of them. Originally, he was going to make an hour-long stop on the 9th before moving on to Oslo to collect his Nobel Peace Prize; being from one of the world’s top polluting countries, that decision would certainly put a bad mark on his record. So, instead of breezing through the conference this week, he will be in attendance during the end of the conference. A number of people have seen this as a good sign of a solid agreement being close at hand.
I am sure most people think that the main purpose of this conference is to crackdown on the climate change issue, help the world unite under one great, green environmental banner and reduce CO2 emissions. While this is definitely true, how many of you know of (or remember) the 1997 Kyoto Protocol? No? Well, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol agreement was created to get industrialized countries to commit to reducing emissions of several greenhouse gases by at least 5.2% from 1990 levels (guess which notable country did not commit to this). COP15 is the successor of the Kyoto Protocol agreement. What is decided during the next two weeks will determine the direction climate change and other environmental action will go in beyond 2012.
A number of countries have already begun to pledge (or at least suggest) their own emission targets as of late. China and India are two big forces that have already taken the voluntary plunge and South Africa recently made a commitment, as well. Over the next 10 years, South Africa plans to reduce their emissions by 34% and that figure is expected to peak in 2025 at 42 percent. President Obama, however, plans to cut emissions by 17% from 2005, though that decision has yet to be approved by congress.
In regards to all of the recent commitments and negotiations, de Boer said:
“Never in the 17 years of climate negotiations have so many different nations made so many firm pledges together. It’s simply unprecedented.”
It certainly is a good sign to see the recent upswing in activity, although some environmentalists claim that the commitments are extremely short of what is needed to keep average temperatures from rising more than 3.6 F (2 C)—as suggested by U.N. scientists. However, most of their warnings were only based on pledges from developed nations—they include nothing of the developing countries, which may be a problem since a number of them are concerned that they may be betrayed.
To avoid a worst case global warming scenario, when you tally up the world’s total emissions, it should be no more than 44 billion tons of CO2 by 2020. With the current commitments and new ones announced thus far, that total will be at 46 billion tons—only 1 billion less than what it is today. Larger emission reduction targets are definitely needed, especially by richer nations. Immediate billion dollar funding is also a necessary factor to create a binding agreement. This funding is expected to increase to hundreds of billions per year within a decade—which is really a small price to pay for all the damage that’s been done and still ongoing.
Expect a lot of news coverage on the COP15 event during the next 2 weeks. Not only will there be information on the conference, but also on events, protests, and most likely updates on the hacked e-mail ordeal. The world needs a change. What will you do during the next 2 weeks to commit yourself to that change?
By Heidi Marshall