Copenhagen: an unmitigated disaster
The Copenhagen conference was an unmitigated disaster as an exercise in global governance. The only hope is that it will act as a wake-up call for a real effort to be made to establish a system.
The exercise was doomed from the outset.
• We are still trying to solve the problem without fully identifying and agreeing upon it.
• Consensus is required among some 193 countries.
• There is still insufficient recognition of the reasons for climate change to convince public opinion in some countries, including the US, of its urgency.
• As the meeting was the culmination of two years’ negotiation, it is hard to believe that there was still debate over form and procedures, which meant that the meeting had been insufficiently prepared. The much heralded Scandinavian transparency was noticeably absent.
• Bringing in over 100 top leaders reduces the likelihood of concessions being made before they arrive. There were some 130 heads of government or state in Copenhagen. The Belgian delegation alone numbered 120.
• The entire approach seems to have been predicated upon the assumption that if you fix a time limit and engage prime ministers and presidents, it’ll come right in the end.
• There was no feeling that the countries are engaged in seeking a common solution to a common problem. Negotiations seem to have been a web of zero-sum games.
• Too many national leaders have failed to convince their publics as to the sacrifices that need to be made so as not to sacrifice their children’s and grandchildren’s future.
• Above all, there was a lack of mutual trust.
An 11th hour face-saving deal brokered by the US at least allowed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to welcome it euphemistically as an “essential beginning” – after a two year process and two weeks of intense negotiations, whose original object was to adopt unanimously a legally binding agreement!
The deal was agreed between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. The official declaration sets out the agreement but only “takes note of the Copenhagen Accord” of 18 December 2009 (“advance unedited version”), the key elements of the accord are:
• Recognition of the need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
• Developed countries to deliver $30bn of aid to developing nations over the next three years. A goal was set to provide $100bn a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries, drawing on a variety of sources: “public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance.”
• The pledges of rich countries will come under “rigorous, robust and transparent” scrutiny under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Developing countries will submit national reports on their emissions pledges under a method “that will ensure that national sovereignty is respected.”
• Pledges on climate mitigation measures seeking international support will be recorded in a registry.”
• The implementation of the Copenhagen Accord will be reviewed by 2015.
The major unsatisfactory aspects are:
• The accord is not legally binding, and was merely “noted” by the 193 nations at the Copenhagen summit.
• 2°C is is a formal target. The group “recognises the scientific view that” the temperature increase should be held below this figure. It does not identify a year by which carbon emissions should peak. The size of CO² reduction targets has not been set
• The division of the annual fund between donors and between recipients has not been agreed.
• Countries are asked to spell out by 1 February 2010 their pledges for curbing carbon emissions by 2020, but there are no penalties for defaulters.
• The verification procedure is weak.
The document published on the official website contains two appendices:
I Quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020.
This provides columns for “Annex I Parties” and their targets (stating base year); and
II Nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing country Parties. This provides columns for “Non Annex I Parties and actions
The columns are blank in both appendices.
Solution
Any international body with 193 national vetos cannot be sued for decision-making. The UN Conference should only address scientific and technical issues.
Political decisions should be taken in the G20 (or rather G16 with France, Germany, Italy & UK being part of the EU. The G16 probably represents about two-thirds of the world’s polluters and three-quarters of its GDP.
Consensus in the G6 will be hard to achieve but it is achievable, given the political will. But first out citizens need their leaders to make out a case for the pain they will have to suffer for their children’s and grandchildren’s gain.
Rated 6th most influential EU blog by Waggener Edstrom. European of British nationality, for nearly 30 years Bruxellois. Deep believer in the principle of 'mutuality' and Monnet's axiom "Thought cannot be divorced from action", equivalent to Wang Yangming's "Zhixingheyi". 