If you were following my blog during the international climate change negotiations that took place in Copenhagen in December 2009, then you might have come across my posts about the OneClimate live webcast. OneClimate provided internet viewers with live programming pretty much around the clock, from their location in the Bella Center, where the official actions were taking place. It was absolutely amazing.
photo: Chacaltaya, Bolivia 350.org 2009 day of action, from 350.org on Flickr.
In reaction to the outcome of COP15, a people's summit is taking place in Bolivia from April 19 - 22. (Official details here.) OneClimate will be covering the event live, again through an interactive live webcast. All viewers will be able to put their questions to delegates attending the summit and engage with others watching around the world.
Panelists: * Ambassador Phillip Muller and Caleb Christopher, UN Mission of the Marshall Islands * David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council * Dan Esty, Yale Law School * Steven Ferrey, Suffolk University
International climate change negotiations are in disarray. Criticism against the scientific practices of the IPCC has mounted, the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this past December became a "snarling, aggravated, chaotic event" (in the words of U.S. lead negotiator Todd Stern), and recently the head of the UNFCCC announced that he will step down in a move widely perceived to reflect the insider's dim outlook for upcoming negotiation meetings. Against this tumultuous backdrop, speakers from a variety of perspectives and areas of expertise will discuss the present state and likely future of international climate change regulation.
For the next two weeks OneClimate's hosts Daniel Nelson, Anuradha Vittachi, Jeff Allen and Adam Groves will be airing 200+ hours of the recorded highlights from their COP15 live stream.
Tune into this blog post to watch!
To start the live stream you must click on the arrow below.
The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15) wrapped up last Saturday morning, December 19th. One hundred eighty eight countries (of the 193 represented at COP15) signed onto a new international climate change agreement called the Copenhagen Accord, essentially led by a group of five nations who were the first to sign onto the agreement - the USA, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil.
The Copenhagen Accord is a three-page, 12-paragraph, approximately 1,400 word document that basically lays out some foundations for future agreements. It's not binding, which means that it's not legally enforceable. Since the negotiations were led by President Obama, and not the UN (at a UN-led conference) there was some initial concern regarding how the UN would react to the Copenhagen Accord.
On top of that, the UN was limited in what they could do - they could not formally adopt the Copenhagen Accord because Sudan, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba refused to sign the Copenhagen Accord. (Though significantly, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed signed the agreement. He announced this in the wee hours of Saturday morning, December 19th.)
Instead, the UN announced that they support the Copenhagen Accord, but what the UN meant by their decision to "take note" of the Copenhagen Accord is subject to interpretation. (Though Robert C. Orr, the United Nations assistant secretary general for policy and planning, said that “take note” was shorthand for acceptance.)
What IS clear, is that COP15 was a means to an end, and not an end - there's still more work to do! (And with that, more opportunities for change.)
So what does the Copenhagen Accord actually say?
* Average global temperatures should not be allowed to rise by more than 2 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial levels.
* By signing the agreement, the 188 parties who signed it “commit to implement .... quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020.” - The initial agreement did not "spell out" what each country's target would be, or how they would go about achieving it - those are literally "fill in the blank" sections on the agreement, that each country is to fill in for themselves. Each of the 188 parties must submit this information to the UN by the end of January 2010.
* The document lays down some guidelines for how progress made by developing countries will be measured and accounted for, or in COP15 lingo “measurable, reportable and verifiable” (MRV.) - Many developing nations, particularly China, are wary of the prospect of intrusive international monitoring of industry. The accord allows for “domestic measurement, reporting and verification”, but requires that this be reported “through national communications, with international consultation and analysis.”
* "New and additional, predictable and adequate funding” will be provided to developing nations for emissions mitigation, reducing deforestation, technology development and transfer and adaptation. - Up to $30 billion will be provided between 2010 and 2012. Developed countries also committed to find a more substantial $100 billion by 2020. A significant portion of financing will flow through a newly established Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
photo: Karl Burkart, who was covering COP15 for theMother Nature Networkholding up a copy of the Copenhagen Accord.
What's NOT in there? Lots of people have thoughts on this, but here's my own personal gripe - as New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin pointed out in his blog post The missing 'P' Word in Climate Talks, "If you scan the most recent drafts of the climate agreement that delegates here are trying to complete, you’ll have a hard time finding the word population. I’m quite sure it’s not there. (Please let me know if you find it.)" For an explanation of why this is problematic check out this New York Times blog post by John Collins Rudolf. He covers a recent report that found that condoms and birth control pills are more cost effective than windmills and solar panels as tools to curb global warming.
So what actually happened over there? Well it depends on who you talk to - for starters our President or China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. I stand firmly with President Obama - check out the Administration's account of how it all went down on the last day of the negotiations. Then check out the New York Times' account of the clash between the Chinese and President Obama.
Here's a nice summary from David Roberts at Grist:
If there’s a party to blame, it’s China. It’s China that was off meeting with India and Brazil, trying to avoid getting ensnared in any commitments at all, forcing Obama to track them down. It was China that refused to sign off on the target of 50% global reductions by 2050. It was China that forced rich countries not to commit to 80% reductions by 2050, lest it some day have to live up to that target. (Yes, China forced rich countries to trim their ambitions. “Ridiculous,” said Merkel.) It was China who, up until the very last minute, refused to agree to any international verification at all, and only upon the personal intervention of Premier Wen Jiabao agreed to accept a voluntary system of reporting.
As for Obama specifically, here's the speech that he gave during the much anticipated Friday morning plenary, attended by all of the Heads of State and their staff. If you'd rather read the transcript then you can find it here.
What's next? So while I think the finger should be pointed at China, since so many people are blaming Obama for the non-binding agreement that came out of COP15, the fact is that what China finally agreed to is instrumental to progress here at home, which itself is instrumental to future progress internationally.
As Senator John Kerry said in his COP15 speech on the Wednesday before Obama arrived in Copenhagen, “To pass a bill, we must be able to assure a senator from Ohio that steelworkers in his state won’t lose their jobs to India and China because those countries are not participating in a way that is measurable, reportable and verifiable."
If you have been following the climate change fights that have been going down in the US Senate for the past few years then you'll be familiar with that refrain. Now that China and India have taken responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions, and have agreed to permit outside monitoring, it opens the door for action in the US Senate, and therefore the US Congress.
Internationally, the next annual UN Climate Change Conference will take place towards the end of 2010 in Mexico City, preceded by a major two week negotiating session in Bonn, Germany, from May 31st - June 11th. Some nations hope that Mexico City will be an opportunity to turn this basic agreement into a full, legally-binding treaty. But as Yvo de Boer – the man in charge of the process – put it: “We have a lot of work to do on the road to Mexico.”
Stay optimistic.
According to Yvo de Boer “Never before have we seen so many world leaders gathered in the stride for the climate. Even though it appeared to be very difficult [to get an agreement] 115 heads of state or governments chose to come to Copenhagen and engage. This is what we need to build on.”
As an exhausted Obama said before leaving Copenhagen, "One of the things that I’ve felt very strongly about during the course of this year is that hard stuff requires not paralysis but it requires going ahead and making the best of the situation that you’re in at this point, and then continually trying to improve and make progress from there."
You'll have noticed from what I chose to cover on my blog during COP15 that the US and international youth delegations factored very prominently in the international agreements. The relationships developed between international youth at the conference, the experiences and skills gained at COP15, and the opportunities for the youth voices to be heard by international leaders were some of the biggest achievements of COP15. There is reason for hope.
Here at home the youth have also clearly impressed US Environment and Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and US Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. For more insight on the collaborations between youth and the US Administration see HeadCount CEO Andy Bernstein's blog post from his attendance at the recent White House youth energy forum.
And for as what's next, after Mexico City? The New York Times suggests that the UN model of large summits of world leaders coming together to hash out agreements is dead, so long as nations continue to fight over "environmental guilt, future costs and who should referee the results."
Andrew Revkin and John Broder of the New York Times suggest that the details will be ironed out by a much smaller group of nations, roughly 30 countries responsible for 90% of global warming emissions. It was these nations that Mr. Obama rallied in a series of dramatic encounters on Friday to finally ink a deal that starts a flow of financing for poor countries to adapt to climate change and sets up a system for major economies to monitor and report their greenhouse gas emissions. This smaller group of nations will meet periodically to tackle a narrower agenda of issues, like technology sharing or the merging of carbon trading markets, without the chaos and posturing of the United Nations process.
In the meantime, I can't resist - John Mayer said it best - "Fight on, fight on everyone."
I'm working on a recap of COP15, but in the meantime check this out, courtesy of 350.org. Just in case you're feeling a little down, here's a special selection of pictures that our friend Shadia put together after the Oct. 24 day of action labeled "350 Cute." They remind us what we're fighting for...
What can you do now? Power Shift is encouraging you to call your senators and the White House. Participate here.
If you prefer to watch it on TV, re-broadcasts will occur: * Today - Thursday, 6 pm JST, on CNN-International * Today - Thursday, 8 pm PST and 11 pm PST, on CNN-domestic (U.S.) * Saturday, 10 am GMT and 4 pm GMT, CNN-international * Sunday, 5 pm JST, CNN-International
You can also check out the conversation around this event that happened on Twitter on Tuesday, here.
Looking for another opportunity to have your voice heard by world leaders on an issue close to your heart? Then check out this opportunity from YouTube.
11:52am: A dozen youth have entered the State Department Lobby located in Washington, DC.
Yesterday, the youth climate movement stood up. Or sat down, as it were. 19 international youth delegates staged a sit-in at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, refusing to move until negotiators and world leaders arrived at a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty.
As we speak, a dozen youth climate activists in DC are sitting-in in the lobby of the State Department in solidarity with their counterparts in Copenhagen. Help us amplify the efforts of those calling for climate justice by telling President Obama and the US delegation that the time has passed for political cow-towing and empty promises. Our movement is strong and our voices will not be shut out.
photo: youth activists read off names of 11 million+ global citizens calling for real climate action
No Time Listed on Blog, but likely sometime in the mid-afternoon: The sit-in has concluded. The protesters were ‘detained’ and removed from the hall, and made to sit in a small holding room. Then they were given the option to leave, or stay and get arrested. Since no press was on hand, and no one was there to witness the arrests, they left the building.
During the sit-in today It's Getting Hot In Here asked supporters to call the US State Department with this message:
I stand in solidarity with the youth sit-in in the State Department lobby, and at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty. Fair is $200 billion in climate financing for poorer countries; ambitious is a 2015 peak year for carbon emissions and a safe carbon level of 350 ppm, and binding is a legally enforceable treaty. We will not accept your return from Copenhagen without these demands met.
In a move that surprised just about everyone, today US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in her speech at COP15 that the US would join other nations in securing a $100 billion fund/per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with climate change --
so long as an agreement can be reached on a "substantive political accord" that would include transparency in tracking emissions cuts by major developing countries.
Clinton was talking about China, India, and Brazil, but she didn't actually come out and say it.
In response, the nonprofit 1Sky launched a campaign asking Americans to call President Obama to let him know that Americans want him to commit the US to ambitious targets and climate financing for developing nations that will put us on the path to 350 ppm, to survival, and to a fair, ambitious and binding global deal.
I grabbed this from Dean Ottinger's Day 8 COP15 blog entry, which hasn't been published on the Pace website yet:
Re emission reduction commitments there is general agreement that the US weak commitment of just 3 percent is a drag on the whole process. A number of countries won't up their ante unless we do since it would put them at a competitive disadvantage. Europe is holding back on a larger commitment to put pressure on the US. China is thought to be holding back on reporting and verification as leverage to get the US to do more.
However, a McKinsey & Company report issued today and previewed at one of the UNF briefings indicates that the US legislation goes further than the cap and trade commitments it states in that the cap does not take into account the strong efficiency and renewable energy commitments elsewhere in the agreement that would lower emissions. McKinsey postulated that the legislative cap was kept low deliberately in order to ease passage in the Senate. I will send a reference to the McKinsey Report when it is published.
Also indicated that the conference was far too focused on the costs of remediation and the allocation of those costs, ignoring the considerable benefits of transformation from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables -- to say nothing of the far greater costs of not acting. The report will contain estimates of these benefits.
I'm still catching up on COP15 coverage so this is a little belated, but still relevant.
Access to the Bella Center continues to grow more restrictive as more and more heads of state arrive @ COP15, many with large delegations. This has forced many observers who had previously had access to the Bella Center out of the building.
Yet the situation with Friends of the Earth still seems odd -
According to this New York Times article, when Friends of the Earth's 90-member delegation showed up at the Bella Center on Wednesday morning and presented their delegate badges to security to gain entrance to the building, the delegates found that their badges were no longer valid, and were therefore denied entry to the Bella Center.
photo: Friends of the Earth delegates @ Bella Center entrance
Here's a report of the situation from Friends of the Earth staff member Nick Berning that I received very early this morning PST:
Just managed to get internet access again via a borrowed laptop now.
We've been sitting here for two hours now, about 50 Friends of the Earth representatives, all with accreditation and secondary badges, who have been refused admission to the conference. We are sitting in the registration area, between the registration/credentials desks and the photo desks.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer came out and spoke to us awhile ago and said he wanted to resolve the situation. A few of our representatives have gone to talk to UN officials while we sit here, but our lack of access remains unresolved.
Initially there were a lot of reporters, but the UN has now cordoned us off and closed access to media.
The UN still has yet to give us a coherent reason for our having been denied access. We have been given different explanations by different officials: (1) we are a security threat or (2) there was no more room inside. It's hard to see how the "no room" explanation makes sense, as they continued to allow other NGO observers to enter even as we were denied access. And as for the security threat, we're a bunch of policy wonks and youth activists who have been participating in the negotiations every day for two weeks.
We've had both a member of the Norweigan and a member of the Canadian parliament come speak to us to lend us their support while we've been sitting here.
One of the key roles Friends of the Earth has played at the conference has been to advocate for climate justice and the interests of the poor countries that have done the least to cause the climate crisis but will feel some of its strongest impacts. Negotiators from those countries are tremendously under-resourced here. For example, I've worked with negotiators who have no media officers (I do media work) to help them communicate their position. They are totally outgunned by the massive delegations of the rich countries, and now thanks to the UN's decision to exclude us, they will have even less support inside the Bella Center to fight for a fair agreement. It's really shameful.
Also --
Re the entry way more generally: appears that access to the conference has been almost completely shut down. We have a very clear view of the front doors and the security area, and people come through only very sporadically.'
Best, Nick
Nick suggested this video recap of the day's events as well, prepared by Friends of the Earth.
Again according to the New York Times article, Yvo De Boer, executive director of the U.N.F.C.C.C., eventually emerged to talk to the spurned delegates. Against an angry chorus of “Open the Door, De Boer!,” he explained somewhat testily that the United Nations had “no other option but to restrict” admissions.
Ultimately he offered the organization 12 passes to the conference, a number that the group deemed unacceptable. At about 1 p.m. they decided to leave, meaning that one of the worlds largest environment groups is no longer at the meetings.
I stumbled upon this article in the Politico today. The opening paragraph makes me smile each time I read it:
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is tired of the world telling the Senate what to do — so he spent his brief stopover Wednesday at the U.N. climate conference telling the world what it can do for the Senate.
In a speech that was part climate-change pep rally, part lecture on America’s legislative political dynamics, Kerry argued that he needs a strong political settlement at COP-15 to jolt the Senate into action on its moribund cap-and-trade bill.
Most of Senator Kerry's speech was captured in the video below. Full recording should be posted on Senator Kerry's website soon.
Some highlights from the speech (full transcript available here):
If Dick Cheney can argue that even a 1% chance of a terrorist attack is 100% justification for preemptive action—then surely, when scientists tell us that climate change is nearly a 100% certainty, we ought to be able to stand together, all of us, and join in an all out effort to combat a mortal threat to the life of this planet.
After stating that the US Senate could pass climate legislation by June, a month or two after the deadline Al Gore set during his COP15 appearance, Senator Kerry went on to say --
And vitally, we must agree on a process to come back together next year to transform the Copenhagen political agreement into a binding international treaty. That process should not delay and I believe an early summer date of June or July 2010 is realistic and necessary.
You might have heard that things got violent outside of the Bella Center yesterday. Here's an account of the event from It's Getting Hot in Here, written by Adrian Wilson, who was involved in the event.
Here's a video of the interactions between Danish police and demonstrators that was filmed by a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation.
This is from last Tuesday, but I think it's still worth sharing because David Doniger, Policy Director of NRDC's Climate Center, is amazing.
Prior to this role at NRDC he served for 8 years in the Clinton administration, where he was director of climate change policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and, before that, counsel to the head of the EPA's clean air program; he also worked for a year at the Council on Environmental Quality.
In this interview, conducted by Daniel Nelson and Jeffrey Allen of "Copenhagen Live" Doniger explains the significance of the EPA's recent Endangerment Finding and other big changes underway in the US.
The interview is broken up into 3 video segments, posted below in chronological order.
"Copenhagen Live" airs live on the live video streaming site that's broadcasting from COP 15, called One Climate. Programming airs live daily through December 18th, from 12noon - 9pm. I highly recommend checking it out here. The above interview is archived footage from their web stream.
Youth actions @ COP15 began last Monday with a "flash dance" in the main hall of the Bella Center.
Youth also formally presented TckTckTck's petition signed by 10 million world citizens to Yvo de Boer and Connie Hedegaaard, Danish Climate Minister and President of COP15.
photo: Flickr Robert vanWaarden
Leah Wickham, 24, of Fiji, gave a captivating short speech about the 'hopes and dreams' of the petition signers.
To "meet" some of the youth delegates check out the below video and these photos.
Operation Free is a coalition of US military veterans (many of them Millennials who served in Iraq and Afghanistan) and national security organizations who are carrying the message that climate change poses a serious national security threat.
They are hosting a briefing tomorrow, during which they will discuss the connection between security and climate change, progress that's been made thus far, and the reaction they've had to their message thus far. You can watch it via live stream @ 12noon EST here.
In addition to a presence @ COP15 they have been very active spreading their message throughout the USA.
Organised by E3G in cooperation with Chatham House, Brookings Institute, and Institute for Environmental Security, the event is a panel presentation by military leaders from a developed as well as developing nation on the likely security impacts of climate change. The panelists will then discuss what the security community is already doing, or thinks needs to be done, in order to guarantee national and global security.
At 5pm today approximately 30 international youth (including 10 Americans) staged a "sit-in" in the main hallway of the Bella Center, outside of the main hall, during the opening of the high level segment of the COP15 negotiations. They were not blocking the flow of traffic, but rather lining the hallway.
The youth read the names of the 11 million+ people who have signed a petition demanding a fair, ambitious, and legally binding agreement.
An hour and a half into the "sit-in", with a huge group of international media present with their cameras, the Bella Center security began forcibly removing the non-violent protesters. Reporters and young people surrounded the Bella Center security staff, chanting ''The whole world is watching.''
After detaining several youth, the remaining protesters were left on the side of the hallway, where they currently remain as of 8:30pm.
One hour after the police incident, Senator John Kerry arrived and shook hands with all the protesters, raising spirits among the group.
photo: Flickr SustainUS
Lots more great coverage here on the It's Getting Hot In Here blog!
Earlier today Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson hosted an Oxfam-sponsored panel discussion on the international human costs of climate change. The event took place in the Bella Center
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Since his retirement, he has worked as a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights.
Also involved in today's event were UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, who was to be presented with the panel's findings, Oxfam Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, and these climate witnesses organized by Oxfam:
* Constance Okollet: a farmer from Uganda whose village faced death and hunger after an unprecedented drought was followed by flash flooding in 2007. * Shorbanu Khatun: a cyclone Aila survivor from Bangladesh now living with around 45,000 internally displaced people on the embankments of coastal area, Satkhira. * Cayetano Huanca: a farmer from Peru, whose village is suffering water shortages and hunger due to glacial melt and a rising climate. * Sharon Hanshaw: a hurricane Katrina survivor who lost her home and business of 21 years.
The below recording only totals about 25 minutes, but is broken up into 4 video segments. They are listed here in numerical order. Most footage is of Archbishop Desmond Tutu but also included is the testimony of Cayetano Huanca.
350.org shared their new campaign video today, following an event with Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed. He was introduced by Bill McKibben before a crowd at Klimaforum in Copenhagen.
President Nasheed said "my message to you is to continue the protests...continue despite the odds."
