Copenhagen, Denmark- Tuesday's COP15 proceedings were slightly confrontational as members of the Association of Small Island Countries gave impassioned speeches to draw attention to their position on the front lines of the climate crisis.

COP 15 participants at the meeting hall. Photo: Colin

This led to the AOSIC requesting a transparent and open contact group to discuss and evaluate new proposals submitted by various countries including Tuvalu, Australia, and Japan. However, China, India, and others took issue with proposals to amend the Kyoto Protocol and insisted that we should just implement the Bali Action Plan and not waste time on amendments.

It all started with Malta requesting to be considered an ‘annex one’ country as it is part of the EU and carries its share in reducing carbon emissions. Other members of AOSIC expressed excitement that they would have a member in the ‘annex one’ group. Then the delegate from Tuvalu unleashed a vehement speech outlining how small island countries will be the first to be consumed by the effects of global warming.

"We are here to seal the deal," he announced, "we're here to ensure the survival of Tuvalu and other nations around the world. The time for procrastination is over!"

This comment was greeted with the first applause of the day, followed by a swath of approval and agreement from similar nations including the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Jamaica, Comoros, the Marshall Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, Mauritius, Barbados, Fiji, Palau, and developing coastal states like Sierra Leone, Niger, Belize, Senegal, Gambia, Kenya, and Rwanda.

All these developing small islands that are severely threatened by the prospect of global warming and rising tides are worried that their part in the proceedings will be too small, especially for what they are facing.

"What you just heard was a call for help, they are demanding to survive, they are purely and simply expressing the fact that the nature of our planet is threatening to make them disappear," stated the delegate from Cape Verde.

Larger annex one countries feel that it is not necessary to review the Kyoto Protocol or deviate from the Bali Action Plan. In fact, many delegates today thought it would be a waste of time to revise and debate the Kyoto Protocol. The delegates from India and China were the main proponents of this opinion.
"We already have a protocol, a good one, and I refer to the ambitious plans made in Bali," said the Indian delegate, switching to English because the 'issue is so serious.' "We are all bound to Kyoto and Bali, and any deviation would not only be a prejudgment, but we should discourage this, so India would not support any new proposals under Article 17 of the convention."

Ultimately the voices from the seemingly endless number of small island states won out and the president said that there will be a transparent contact group made up of Annex One and Non-Annex One countries to review and evaluate the addition of plans proposed by these countries.

However, delegates from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela stated that they would not waste their time in a contact group and that any deviation from the Kyoto Protocol would be a waste of time.

So with this lack of consensus the president was forced to set up informal consultations on the matter and revisit it in the future. Needless to say the Tuvalu delegation was displeased.

"Tuvalu cannot accept these consultations, even on consulting how to consult. We submit that this COP be suspended until this issue is ruled upon."

The issue has yet to be resolved and the coming days will add more delegates and more opinions that will either clarify or further the conflict.

-Colin King in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Note: Colin King is majoring in English with Media Studies/Journalism at Kalamazoo College, Michigan, USA and spending this semester in Copenhagen, Denmark. Because of his deep personal interest in energy policy and climate change, he will be reporting exclusively for USNepalOnline.com before and during the COP15 conference being held there.

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