Industrialized countries try to play down Copenhagen

We are now reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark, where ministers from 43 countries have gathered for two days of ministerial meetings on 16 and 17 of November.

This meeting sets the scene for the next act on the political road towards the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, ‘COP15′.

The big discussion topic is the recent news from the APEC meeting in Singapore, where a few leaders of industrialized countries continued to down-play the ambition for COP15. Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s statement in Singapore triggered these news.

What Rasmussen says

PM Rasmussen repeated his view that the Copenhagen outcome will not be legally binding, but instead would be part one of a ‘two-step’ agreement.  Copenhagen will only deliver “a political text framing the agreement, 5 to 8 pages …” with the ‘full’ agreement to follow at an as-yet unspecified date in the future.

That leaves us – and many of the most vulnerable countries in the world – scratching our heads and asking why we should accept yet more delay when delay threatens the survival of people, communities and ecosystems, as well as costing around $500 billion per year according to IAE’s World Energy Outlook.

Negative Consequences

The Danish PM’s plans are ambiguous to say the least – his willingness to accept, and actively plan for, failure in Copenhagen in December will get us anywhere nearer to success at a later date.

Some of the the most negative players in the negotiations try to make a bad situation worse.  The defeatist response of Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper for instance, that the deal now looked to be a “long way off” underscores the Canadian government’s lack of commitment and ambition.

The good news

What about the scores of other countries – vulnerable countries, small island countries, African countries, and the many others who have negotiated for two years in good faith, and who are holding out for a fair, ambitious and legally-binding deal to be struck in Copenhagen?

After all, such a deal may determine their very survival.

The Pre-COP meeting being held on 16 and 17 November in Copenhagen is where a group of ministers from a range of countries get together to agree the game plan for the COP itself, including what kind of outcome to aim for. And the Pre-COP includes many countries who are keen on getting a good Copenhagen outcome.

The good news is that many of these countries insist that an ambitious and legally binding agreement is the only outcome possible for Copenhagen.

What WWF says:

• The timing of the Danish Prime Minister’s speech to APEC is really bad.  Why is Denmark trying to bury ambitions even before these discussions begin?
• This is exactly the moment where the Danish COP Presidency could have chosen to show ambition and courage by proposing a way to a strong and legally-binding outcome of Copenhagen.
• What is really missing to get a legally-binding outcome of Copenhagen is not time but political will and courage. If the Danish proposal is to write all the substantial commitment into a decision in Copenhagen, then why not write it in a legally-binding form? It would not take one second more to do that.
• What the Danish Prime Minister is doing is to show an easy way out for the largest emitters. He is completely out of step with the interests of the citizens of the world.
• We agree with views by political leaders all over the world that the outcome of Copenhagen needs to be comprehensive and cover all of the issues being negotiated. However, contrary to the Prime Minister, we insist that the agreement is written in legally-binding language. This is the only way we will know that the commitments of countries are more than just wishful thinking.

The world needs a legally-binding climate agreement out of Copenhagen, and we still have the chance to get that regardless of how some political leaders try to play this down.

We must use the political momentum that has been built up for Copenhagen. We cannot wait any longer – the world cannot afford more delay.

All the best

Kim and the WWF Climate Change team