Posts Tagged ‘Copenhagen’
Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 – Rich countries must curb their pollution instead of asking poor countries to act, the Group of 77 countries and China said here Monday.
Speaking at the opening plenary session of the Dec 7-18 summit, G77 chair, Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping of Sudan, said: ‘There should be categorical reaffirmation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its principles and positions, and in particular, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities’ at the conference.
Asked to state the Indian government’s position on the opening day of the much-awaited summit, a senior member of the official delegation told IANS that it had been reflected in Di-Aping’s statement, which had been drafted at a G77 and China meeting just hours before the opening session.
The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) says that all countries must do their best to fight climate change, but industrialised countries had the primary responsibility, since they had put in the atmosphere almost all the extra greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide – that were causing climate change today.
The Sudanese ambassador to the UN also said at the opening session that the Bali Action Plan worked out two years ago on how to go about fighting climate change ‘must continue to be the mandate for our negotiations’.
‘We should utilise the remaining negotiating time to make every effort possible to achieve an outcome in keeping with the above mandate,’ Di-Aping said.
The G77 ‘rejects attempts at putting aside the Kyoto Protocol in favour of a single legal instrument where the emission reduction obligations of developed countries would be reflected alongside similar objectives of developing countries, thereby violating the CBDR principle’, he added.
Industrialised countries have been making a concerted effort to replace the Kyoto Protocol – the current treaty under which they must reduce their emissions – by a new treaty, because the US has not ratified the protocol, and other developed countries feel they must bring the US on board efforts to combat climate change.
Di-Aping also said: ‘The emission reduction targets indicated so far by developed countries fall far short of what is required, especially considering that their emissions have continued to increase.’
He added: ‘The importance of REDD Plus should be recognised and included in any outcome at Copenhagen.’
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an important item on the summit agenda here, with industrialised countries expected to pay developing countries for this. India and China have come up with the idea of REDD Plus instead, under which countries that improve their forest cover should also be paid for it.
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Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 (DPA) The first decision taken by the UN climate change conference after it opened Monday was to formalise the appointment of Connie Hedegaard of Denmark as its president.
On accepting the vote, Hedegaard urged delegates not to waste any time, saying ‘this is the place to commit’.
‘This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we get a new and better one. If ever,’ she added.
The conference, which aims to secure a new global deal on curbing emissions of greenhouse gases, is the fruition of years of talks and preparations.
In the run-up to the meeting, the former Danish climate and energy minister shuttled between various capitals and venues, delivered speeches and penned articles on the importance of clinching an agreement.
Hedegaard, 49, has a wide political network and her efforts to help craft a successful deal in Copenhagen have included informal meetings with environment ministers within the framework of the Greenland dialogue.
These discussions began in 2005, and the ministers have formed a network that may come into play during the Copenhagen talks.
Hedegaard is a member of the Conservative Party, the junior partner in Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s minority centre-right government.
When she was 24, Hedegaard was elected to parliament after engaging in politics at Copenhagen University, where she studied history and literature.
She left politics in 1990 for some years to work in journalism, including the newspaper Berlingske Tidende and as a news presenter for Danish public broadcaster DR, but made a comeback as environment minister in August 2004.
The portfolio was enlarged with climate issues in 2007 and Hedegaard has since pushed through measures to raise taxes for emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2) and promoting renewable energy sources.
Last month, Hedegaard was nominated by the Danish government to the executive European Commission.
Her political CV and profile were cited when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso nominated her for the new climate action post in the incoming commission.
Moving to Brussels means that Hedegaard, mother of two, will leave the Danish political stage and party leader Lene Espersen can avoid a potential challenge to her leadership.
Espersen, minister for economics and business affairs, has taken a tougher line than Hedegaard on several issues, including immigration.
Hedegaard’s green profile – and an example of Copenhagen’s image as a haven for cyclists – has included cycling to work from Hellerup, north of the capital.
Time magazine included her in its list of 100 most influential people of 2009 because of her fight against climate change.
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Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 (DPA) A young girl from the Fiji Islands moved participants at a climate change conference in Copenhagen Monday with a heartfelt appeal for her country to be saved from global warming and rising sea levels.
‘Fifty years from now, my children will be raising their own families. It is my hope that they will still be able to call our beautiful islands home,’ said Leah Wickham, a 24-year-old student at the University of the South Pacific.
Wickham issued her appeal to the conference’s president, Connie Hedegaard, and Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
‘I am relying on the decisionmakers to sign a deal that will mean that my children inherit a safe world,’ a visibly emotional Wickham said. ‘All the hopes and dreams of my generation rest on Copenhagen.’
According to Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea levels have already risen by 17 cm in the 20th century, threatening low-lying island states in the Pacific Ocean.
A member of Greenpeace, a pressure group, Wickham presented delegates with a TckTckTck petition signed by 10 million people calling for a ‘fair, ambitious and binding deal’ at the Copenhagen summit.
The TckTckTck campaign is calling on rich nations to provide at least $150 billion a year in aid to help poorer countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
It is also seeking a legally-binding agreement aimed at limiting the concentration of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million (ppm), which many scientists say is the safe upper limit. The current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was recently estimated at 387 ppm.
TckTckTck says bringing CO2 levels back to the 350 ppm limit would require emission cuts by the developing world of at least 40 percent by 2020.
Hedegaard said pressure from non-governmental organisations and civil society meant it would be ‘very difficult’ for politicians not to deliver during the 12-day conference.
De Boer said Wickham’s emotional speech showed that the conference was about people’s ‘livelihoods’ rather than just pieces of paper.
‘Give us two more weeks of talking and I promise that we will deliver,’ de Boer said.
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Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 – The sheer weight of numbers — 15,000 delegates from 192 governments, NGOs and media — threatened to overwhelm the organisers as the UN climate summit opened here Monday.
The 15th summit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) saw serpentine queues at all entry points right from the eve of the summit opening.
Matters were not helped by a bomb scare at the main entrance of Bella Centre Sunday afternoon when hundreds of delegates were in the queues to get their conference badges.
The scare was due to an empty bag, but it meant the area had to be evacuated and the bomb disposal squad called in, while delegates waited out in the cold.
The effect of that delay continued through the evening and Monday, as it took an average of two hours to get a badge. Many delegates missed the opening.
Security at this conference is even tighter than it would otherwise be in a place where 110 heads of state and government are expected.
Danish police have reports that a group of anarchists unhappy with lack of progress in the days before the summit plan to ‘invade’ the city.
Local media says the authorities here have hired an empty warehouse, where they have put a large number of ‘cages’ for the anarchists and anyone else found to be ‘misbehaving’.
But despite all this, the conference is hoping to do its bit to fight climate change.
The organisers have made it a point not to have any bottled water anywhere at Bella Centre, relying for drinking water on the municipal water supply instead. At least two-thirds of the food on sale is organic.
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Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 – The recent leak by climate sceptics of a partial exchange of e-mails between scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has become serious enough for IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri to take on the issue at the inauguration of the UN summit here Monday.
The small minority that says climate change is not something to worry about had recently leaked parts of an e-mail sent by a University of East Anglia scientist suggesting that climate change effects should be exaggerated.
Reacting to this, Pachauri said: ‘Given the wide ranging nature of (climate) change that is likely to be taken in hand some naturally find it inconvenient to accept its inevitability. The recent incidents of stealing the e-mails of scientists at the University of East Anglia shows that some would go to the extent of carrying out illegal acts perhaps in an attempt to discredit the IPCC.’
But Pachauri came stoutly to the defence of the organisation he has been heading since 2001, saying it has ‘a record of transparent and objective assessment stretching over 21 years performed by tens of thousands of dedicated scientists from all corners of the globe’.
‘The internal consistency from multiple lines of evidence strongly supports the work of the scientific community, including those individuals singled out in these e-mail exchanges, many of whom have dedicated their time and effort to develop these findings.’
Pachauri assured his audience: ‘The IPCC assessment process is designed to ensure consideration of all relevant scientific information from established journals with robust peer review processes, or from other sources which have undergone robust and independent peer review.’
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Written by admin on 07 December 2009
Copenhagen, Dec 7 – The UN climate summit, on whose decisions the future of the planet Earth and the well-being of succeeding generations depends in many ways, opened in the Danish capital Monday with a call by a leading expert that there will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees unless the 192 nations get over their differences and act urgently.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief Rajendra Pachauri said the time for debate was over and the Dec 7-18 conference must ‘lead to action’.
Over 15,000 government delegates, NGOs and media gathered at the Bella Centre in the Danish capital for a crucial two-week meet to deal with what has been called ‘the defining crisis of our age’ by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. However, a treaty that can tackle the climate change that is already affecting the world is as far as ever.
Industrialised and major developing countries have submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) draft treaties that are almost at two ends of the spectrum on the crucial issue – who should reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), by when and by how much.
The so-called BASIC grouping of countries – Brazil, India, South Africa and China – has proposed what essentially amounts to industrialised countries cutting their GHG emissions 40-45 percent by 2020. Without any mention of this, the proposal by host Denmark – echoed by many developed countries – is that emerging economies commit to a date by which their GHG emissions will peak.
The so-called ‘peaking year’ approach is ‘completely unacceptable’ to India, a member of the government delegation said immediately after the inauguration ceremony of the summit of 192 nations. A stage for confrontation and hard bargaining has been set.
At the ceremony, Pachauri – also head of New Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) – reminded delegates that according to science, ‘global GHG emissions must peak by 2015 and then decline if temperature rise is to be kept within two degrees Celsius as endorsed by the G8 leaders’ a few months back. That move was endorsed by the G20, including India.
The time for debate is over, Pachauri warned. ‘This conference must lead to action.’
The IPCC chief said: ‘In the 20th century average global temperature increased by 0.74 degrees Celsius while sea level rise resulting from thermal expansion of the ocean and melting of ice across the globe amounted to 17 cm.
‘With this increase the Maldive Islands, several other small island states and low lying coastal nations like Bangladesh with land surface barely a metre or two above sea level, would find that every storm surge and major upswelling of the seas represents a serious danger to life and property. The global community thus has a moral and material responsibility to do all it can to limit the growing impact of climate change on these and other vulnerable societies across the globe.’
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, prime minister of Denmark, was very aware of the problems in the two weeks ahead.
Rasmussen said ‘we have to make difficult but necessary decisions’ in his speech at the inauguration ceremony, and called upon delegates to ‘translate political will into a strong common approach’.
He accepted that ‘we have different perspectives on framing and precise content of such an agreement (to tackle climate change) and no one is underestimating the difficulties’, but said the ‘political resolve to have a common agreement that is just and equitable, effective and operational, is manifest’.
According to the Danish premier, the promised presence of 110 heads of state and government on the last two days of the summit Dec 17 and 18 ‘reflects an unprecedented mobilisation of determination to combat climate change, an opportunity the world cannot afford to miss’. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is among those who have promised to be here for what is called the ‘high-level segment’ of the conference.
For the next two weeks, ‘the world reposes faith in you’, Rasmussen told the delegates. ‘Let us turn Copenhagen to Hopenhagen.’
UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer reminded his audience of exactly what was at stake by relating the story of a six-year-old boy who lost his parents and younger brother in a cyclone.
‘The clock has ticked down to zero. After two years of negotiations, the time has come to deliver,’ he said.
According to de Boer, the ‘bottom layer’ of a Copenhagen agreement ‘consists of an agreement on prompt implementation of action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and capacity building.
‘The second layer consists of ambitious emission reduction commitments and actions. It also includes commitments on start-up finance in the order of $10 billion a year, as well as long-term finance.
‘The icing on the cake consists of a shared vision on long-term cooperative action on climate change and a long-term goal.’
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