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Copenhagen, Denmark- So ends the fifteenth annual Conference of the Parties and the international community is left with little more than when it started. Far from a legally binding treaty, the Copenhagen Accord sets some targets and goals for the next time the world convenes to try to slow its self-destruction.
"The Copenhagen Accord may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this is an important beginning," said the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
It is clear after the long days of speeches and pleas and negotiations, that money has been and always will be the defining factor in an international climate treaty. The successful developing countries don't want to sacrifice any future prospects for further growth, the developed countries don't want their citizens to feel as if they are giving hand-outs, and the island-nations, who have made the least environmental impact and face the most immediate and destructive effects of climate change, wanted more of a voice in the proceedings to ensure that they aren't financially ignored.
The latter days of the Copenhagen conference centered around speeches by various Heads of State representing almost every nation on earth. Each one of their speeches fell into the categories above. Members of the G77 vehemently expressed their desire to stop negotiating and implement the Kyoto Protocol.
"Africa is collectively advocating Kyoto, we are in complete agreement with the G77 and China" declared the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Many Heads of State from the developing world agreed that it is the developed nations’ responsibility to rectify the situation; the finger of history points to the developed world as creator of the highest emissions. These are the emissions causing the climatic chaos that the world has witnessed as of late.
"Any violation of the targets set by Kyoto would constitute a violation of our human rights," said the Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
Not all of those in the G77 and the developing world laid the blame exclusively at the feet of the industrialized.
"I come from a country that has suffered from ethnic cleansing and war crimes, and is currently occupied by another state. No matter what the suffering is in your country, we must all accept responsibility. Nobody should try to hide behind the backs of others," stated the Georgian Prime Minister Mikheil Saakashvili.
Regardless where the blame is laid, Republican Representatives from the United States of America were present to outline the U.S's fragile economic situation and their reluctance to accept a cap and trade deal due to possibly fraudulent science.
"If there's anything worthwhile that comes out of this conference it is that we insist on reviewing the model and methodology of climate science," said Representative Joe Barton from Texas.
"The science isn't conclusive, but the economics are. A bill like the Waxman Markey Bill would lose too many American jobs," agreed Jim Sensenbrenner, Representative from Wisconsin. "Any increase in environmental tax is a job-killer."
The other four delegates, Fred Upton from Michigan, Shelley Morre Capito of North Carolina, John Sullivan from Minnesota, and Marsh Blackburn from Tennessee all agreed that climate science is inconclusive and a cap and trade bill will never get passed in the United States if the current representatives and senators want to win re-election.
All representing states that rely heavily on industrial jobs, they were strong proponents of projects like clean coal and nuclear power and were skeptical of anthropogenic climate change.
"There is a culture of corruption that's going through the scientific community right now," declared Representative Sullivan, but when pressed on the motivations of the scientific community for releasing false statistics his only answer was: "Money", which seemed to sum up everybody's motivations at this year's COP.
"I don't think anything beneficial will come from this (COP15) like any treaty being signed or anything because the developing nations don't want to take responsibility for their emissions," Congressman Sullivan concluded. Not surprisingly, none of these congressmen and women had the opportunity to speak to any of the members of the Alliance of Small Island States.
The small island nations are the ones feeling the effects of climate change right now as many of their citizens have already been displaced by shrinking shorelines, floods and other natural disasters. It is estimated that one billion people will be climate refugees by 2015.
As President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines pointed out, the citizens of her country emit 1.6 million tons of CO2 per capita, as opposed to the international average of 6 million tons. Many other small island states have similarly low emission rates yet they are the ones at greatest risk to the effects of climate change.
This is the reason that Tuvalu and other countries wanted to establish committees to discuss their submissions for revisions of the Kyoto Protocol. It seemed only right that those on the frontlines of the disasters posed by climate change should have a greater voice in the proceedings, even though most of these states are not annex one countries.
The G77 and China were adamantly opposed to these submissions and were actively irked by the president's initial acceptance of the establishment of contact groups to look over submissions revising Kyoto. They claimed it would be a waste of time and Kyoto should be immediately reinstated. But is it because they stand the most to gain from the twelve year old protocol that they don't want any changes made?
Since most of the conference was closed off between the 16th and the 18th for security reasons, much of the press and NGO representatives were unable to have their questions answered, and because the final decisions on the 18th started two hours late and didn't conclude until the next morning, press conferences were often cancelled and a lot of information stayed behind closed doors.
Nevertheless, it doesn't really matter; we know the treaty that came out of Copenhagen is scant at best. The Copenhagen Accord provides that we will limit global warming to a maximum of two degrees Celsius over the temperature from the 'pre-industrial' era. It also establishes 100 billion USD annually from 2020 for developing nations to curb their emissions. However, the way that the international community will carry this out remains unaddressed.
So here we are, another conference into the climate crisis, with no further plans on how to curb the warming of the earth. As President Obama put it on Friday, "These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades, and we have very little to show for it... The time to talk is over."
Nearly every delegate present echoed Obama’s sentiment, and yet the international community doesn't seem able to come to an agreement on anything, especially, if not exclusively, on money.
In the meantime we have to take heed of some of the advice shared in Copenhagen. Governor Schwarzenegger, Former Vice President Gore, and many others highlighted the importance of the individual. We each have to do our own part to stop this crisis. As stated by President Rahmon of the Republic of Tajikistan, "(This crisis) was made by the individual, and it is the responsibility of the individual."
-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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