Copenhagen Conference Kicks off with Fanfare and Controversy
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) is now underway with delegates from 192 countries settling in for a week and a half of negotiations. The optimism and skepticism that characterized the build-up to the conference was visible from the summit’s outset, as developed and developing countries disagreed over key issues, namely, who will pay for global greenhouse gas reductions. It remains to be seen if leadership from President Obama will overcome the sharp divides that have emerged. To add to the drama, the White House has pushed back his appearance at the conference until its final scheduled day, which is stoking speculation that he is trying to put himself in a better position to broker an agreement.
More than 2,000 delegates kicked off the conference with an opening ceremony that featured calls to action from Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Chairman of the IPCC Rajenda K. Pachauri, who spent most of last week defending climate change science in the face of the “climategate” scandal. Delegates were then shown a COP15 video, “Please Help the World,” about a young girl’s nightmare in which her stuffed polar bear falls through the cracks of an earthquake. An updated version of the film will be shown at the opening ceremony of the high-level segment of COP15 on December 15.
According to the left-leaning Guardian, the conference was then thrown into “disarray" after a draft text circulated amongst developed countries was leaked to developing country delegates. The so-called “Danish text,” drawn up by climate negotiators from the US, UK, and Denmark, would weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance and require poor countries to keep carbon emissions per person below 1.44 tons, while allowing developed countries 2.67 tons per person.
Developing country leaders were quick to condemn the plan. “[It] robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space," said Lumumba Di-Aping, chairman of the powerful G77 developing country bloc. “If rich countries fail to put sufficient amounts of money on the table and do not come forward with promises to make deeper cuts in their own emissions, many countries will want to walk out,” said Kevin Conrad, special envoy for climate change for Papua New Guinea.
Nevertheless, the announcement by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lisa Jackson, that the EPA will formally categorize greenhouse gases as hazardous to human health and subject them to new regulations has stoked optimism by cap and trade supporters that President Obama will take an aggressive position in Copenhagen. The announcement gives President Obama leverage to push corporations to agree to meet U.S. pledges on carbon emissions just as Congress continues to waffle on the issue. “It’s a signal from the administration…that, look, we've got things going on in Congress but we're also not going to wait for them," said Joe Mendelson, global warming policy director for the National Wildlife Federation.
However, in an open letter to the president last week, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) warned the president not to enter into any agreements in Copenhagen without Congressional approval. “As you well know from your time in the Senate, only specific legislation agreed upon in the Congress, or a treaty ratified by the Senate, could actually create such a commitment on behalf of our country.” President Obama will need to make sure to avoid another awkward Kyoto-like situation, where an international protocol was symbolically signed by then vice president Al Gore in 1998, but never ratified by the U.S. Senate. He will also need to avoid enraging his critics on the right, who are concerned that an international agreement will result in a loss of U.S. sovereignty. “When the EPA made the announcement this week that it has declared carbon dioxide and five other gases as ‘a danger to human health,’ it fired the most lethal salvo yet into what little sovereignty remains of our constitutional republic," said Robert Ditmar in a Washington Examiner op-ed.
So far, Copenhagen is off to a rocky start. As the conference heads into its third day, competing priorities between developed and developing countries will need to be smoothed over, and soon. A walk-out by developing country delegates would almost certainly sound the death knell for any kind of international agreement this year. The idealism and skepticism that characterized the weeks and months ahead of the conference are now caught in a fist fight that could get uglier. Will the skeptics of reform win? For the time being, it looks like they have the upper hand.
David Peyton is a program manager for Global Governance Watch.
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