Municipalites, suite

Pour être bref, je n’ai pas pu participer a l’événement des 40 villes a cause du nombre de plus en plus limité de délégués permis au Bella Centre vers la fin de la conférence. Par contre, je discutais un jour avec une madame qui me parlais des villes aussi. Apres avoir échanger nos cartes d’affaires, j’ai découvert qu’elle était la vice maire de Jérusalem! On a du parler pour au-dessus d’une heure, et elle m’a dit de venir la voir parler a un événement dans le centre ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). C’était une discussion sur la biodiversité dans les villes. Il y avait des travailleurs des nations unis, des spécialistes sur la biodiversité, la vice-maire de Jérusalem et le vice maire de Cape Town, avec plusieurs maires dans la foule. Ce qui m’a frappé en particulier était la discussion sur la déconnexion des humains avec la biodiversité qui résulte de l’urbanisation. Cette expérience à COP-15 m’a vraiment appris à-propos du rôle important que joue les municipalités, car c’est là où les gens vivent! C’est là où les résultats s’exécutent et se font ressentir.

Copenhagen Accord By Corinna Taylor

The Copenhagen Accord has been released. The conclusions drawn were less than satisfying. We need a very strong action plan to combat global warming. While this agreement is a good start, we must continue to work towards a solid solution.

The Accord has a few main points:
-Global emissions must be reduced to a point that will eliminate any human interference to the climate system.
-An increase in temperature must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius.
-Developing countries need aide in building resilience to the effects of climate change, and that developed countries will help financially.
-Countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol will meet their targets by January 31st, 2010 and will continue their efforts thereafter.
-Establishment of REDD+, to enhance the removal of emissions by forests, therefore reducing the rate of deforestation and forest degradation.

There is more to the agreement than what I have stated here, but these are the first few points that were agreed upon. As you can see, these are great starting points. However, they leave no incentive to further reduce emissions from the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol. In order for governments to act, there has to be a target to work towards. By signing this accord, countries are essentially saying that they understand the consequences of global warming, yet have no reason for actually reducing emissions. We need something more than this. We can accomplish much more than this!

Conclusion: Sylvain Perron

La poussière est maintenant retombée et Copenhague n’est plus l’otage de 45 000 étrangers voulant changer le monde.

Après l’échec, parce que oui on peut qualifier cette dernière d’échec, de la 15^e conférence sur les changements climatiques à quoi peut s’attendre la communauté internationale? Il est clair que cette inaction ne fera que reporter l’inévitable : nous devrons réduire nos émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Et chaque année de retard ne fait qu’aggraver la situation.

Cependant, il est vrai qu’un accord a été signé par la communauté internationale et cet accord renferme quand même plusieurs éléments importants :

· Il faut couper dans les émissions globales pour rester en bas de la barre des deux degrés Celsius et prendre des actions sur une base équitable.

· La coopération est nécessaire dans le but d’atteindre le « peak » d’émission globale et nationale le plus tôt possible, et il faut s’attendre que ce « peak » sera plus long pour les pays en développement. Il faut également prendre en considération que le développement social et économique et l’éradication de la pauvreté est la première priorité pour les pays en développement

· À partir de 2020, 100 milliards par année sera donné pour les pays en développement

Comme plusieurs l’ont mentionné, mise à part le montant d’argent pour les pays en développement, il ne s’agit que d’un accord d’intention démontrant un résultat mais aucun moyen d’ici arriver : pas de bourse sur le carbone, pas d’obligation, pas de conséquence. Le Canada peut effet signer l’accord sans jamais rien faire.

Cependant, je suis satisfait que la communauté internationale reconnaisse le fait que les pays pauvres ont eux aussi droit au développement économique et social. Les pays développés en ont d’ailleurs profités pendant plusieurs décennies et maintenant c’est surtout eux qui doivent payer la facture et non les pays en développement.

Mais pour le reste, on peut dire que Copenhague a été un total fiasco.

Fait attention Mexico, la prochaine conférence risque d’être assez intense…

I Can't Get No Satisfaction, By Hillary Buchan-Terrell

As I headed home from Copenhagen yesterday afternoon, I left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and exhaustion, not much unlike many of my IFLRY colleagues and NGOs. I've been feeling rather muted and paralyzed since my arrival in Denmark and it's not only because of my little to no internet access (I must apologize to all of those who were following me on my voyage as I feel like I may have let them down). I've been extremely frustrated and upset with the little voice I've had thus far, but I will promise that this will not set a precedent as there is still much work to do.

I arrived last Sunday afternoon filled with enthusiasm and hope, ready to jump right into the thick of COP15. Arriving on Sunday was both a blessing and a curse. The Conference was not open for business, which meant that I could settle into my accommodation and catch up after my flight. That evening, we enjoyed a conversation with the Right Honourable Paul Martin to discuss our role at COP15, how climate change is affecting Aboriginals around the world and his work in the Congo-basin as part of a developing country NGO (see previous posts for more detail).

The curse of arriving Sunday meant that I could not register at the Bella Centre until Monday morning - the start of the second week of negotiations and arguably, the most important week of the Conference with the arrivals of heads of state and the ramping up of talks. I was ready to wake up early and wait in line, but little did I know that I would have so much difficulty. I got lucky (which speaks volumes of how disorganized the Conference was), after arriving with my YLC co-delegates who had previously registered, I was told I needed to move into another line as I did not have my accreditation yet. This line was outside the gates and was at a standstill. Many of the registered delegates were flowing right through, while I got stuck at the front of the line for registration. We waited for nearly an hour there, before joining a larger and slower line into the Bella Centre. We waited there for nearly 3 and a half hours before security, at which point my toes felt like they were going to fall off. The disorganization of the UN was already apparent here, but I was relieved to be inside. I registered myself, received my badge, checked my coat and found a place to sit and charge my laptop so that I could contact my delegation to meet with them. It took me a couple hours to settle in, recoup my energy, dethaw my limbs and buy a cell phone. The next thing I knew, it was time to leave and go to an IFLRY networking event. What should have been an early warning sign of total disorganization on behalf of the United nations, was overlooked. That afternoon, word broke that the UN would now require secondary badges for at least Tuesday and Thursday to limit the amount of people into the Centre. It was later revealed that this limit actually discounted about two-thirds of NGOs from COP15.

The bad news continued as the hours passed and we found out that these secondary badges would be required for nearly the rest of the week, with the exception of Thursday and Friday, which would have extremely limited access to 1000 and 90 delegates, respectively. Tuesday, I was slated to have a badge from early afternoon onwards. I received my badge just after 1, too late to get tickets to an event with some Ministers and politicians from the US and Canada, but still optimistic about going to some cool events. On our way in, Will and I were given tickets to an debate hosted by CNN and YouTube. Miranda, Will and myself attended and enjoyed the debate with former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, journalist Thomas Friedman, U.N. Executive Secretary Yves de Boer and author Bjorn Lomborg (blog post to follow on this event). That would be my first and last event I attended at the Conference, as I looked through the schedule and got my bearings around the Bella Centre, time crept away from me. I spent the next hours checking out the countries' delegation offices and waiting to watch the Opening Ceremonies (which didn't end up being screened there, so we ended up watching them at the EU Pavillion). At this point in the day, I was exhausted and thought that it would be best to check out for the day and recuperate for Wednesday. I really felt that Tuesday was my one day to warm up to the Bella Centre and get the feel of the Conference. Unfortunately, I spent the next 3 days of COP15 outside the Bella Centre, with almost no internet access to stay tuned to the going-ons inside and around the world. Needless to say, while I was on the ground and supposed to be part of the NGO delegations to the UN Conference, I felt ironically out-of-touch (and still do).

I will try to have a couple more posts on my experience in Copenhagen and thoughts on the outcome in the coming days before Christmas. Additionally, there will still be news filtering out post-COP15 so there is still much commentary to come. I hope as well that climate change will remain at the forefront of people's minds leading into the New Year and COP16 . Let's try to keep the focus and enthusiasm everyone! This is not the end, merely a tipping point for the climate crisis.

Déception

L'accord accepté par la communauté internationale voulant que la température mondiale n'augmente pas plus que 2 degrés démontre très bien l'absence de moyen contraignant pour restreindre la communauté internationalle.

Cependant, Bernard Bigras, député de Rosemont--Petite-Patrie pour le Bloc québécois semble satisfait de cet accord: "C'est très important que cette limitation soit inscrite dans le texte. Il faut se rappeler qu'à Potsdam et Bali, ce n'était qu'un élément de bas de page. " (lemonde.fr)

Cela étant dit, les pays en développement, bien que soulagé d'enfin obtenir une quelconque part du gâteau (100 milliards par année à partir de 2020), semblent bien peu satisfait de l'entente non contraignante des pays développés.

En effet, les pays, comme la Chine, en plein boum économique ne veulent pas nécessairement réduire leur développement puisque les pays développés, eux, n'ont jamais eu de barrière environnementale.

Cependant, tous devront comprendre que le développement peut aussi être d'une manière environnementale. Les pays développés eux, devraient faire un tournant vert, simplement pour montrer l'exemple aux pays en développement. Car nous avons sur les épaules la responsabilité des changements climatiques et les conséquences se feront sentir sur nos voisins en développement bien assez vite, notamment les pays côtiers.

Bref, cet accord n'imposent aucune barrière économique et est la preuve d'une inaction planétaire en matière de changements climatiques. La preuve? Le Canada à signé l'accord...

Opposition unite to say ‘Wake up Mr. Harper’

A HaltonDoesCopenhagen Blog Entry

With news of a 5 country deal that does not include Canada, we wait to hear if Canada will be included in any deal at all – either in addition to the current one or in a secondary deal of some kind. Neither of us are particularly surprised at seeing the government come up empty handed. We’ve run into a number of interesting Canadians at this conference, the vast majority of whom are unhappy with Canada’s position. Among them are prominent members of Canada’s two main opposition parties – the Liberals and the New Democrats. These parties have extremely different views on a number of issues, but on the government’s record on this climate file they both believe it has been an enormous failure.

The Liberal Party critic for Environment and Energy, Mr. David McGuinty sat down with us and discussed how little Canada was bringing to the table. We arrived in Copenhagen with very little of substance. We have vague targets that we aren’t even really committed to meeting and we have absolutely no plan for making it. We plan to follow the United States but don’t have even an outline of how pricing carbon might work to present and negotiate with the United States. Our presence at this conference really was little more than a photo opp, and this is extremely disappointing. Mr. McGuinty gave us a brief message of optimism about the talks that was recorded before he left home on Thursday morning. His optimism seems to have been correct for some of the world, but we still await any news on an agreement from Canada. Mr. Harper, the world is watching and waiting.

We ran into Jack Layton and Olivia Chow at a meeting of mayors from around the world run by ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). Mr. Layton was kind enough to talk with us and echoed Mr.McGuinty’s concerns – that our government seems to be involved in intentional foot-dragging. He notes that our government ‘really has its foot on the brake when it comes to the issue of climate change’. Note from Matt that he apologizes about the stumbling and bumbling at the beginning of this video – we bumped into Mr.Layton mere moments before a presentation was to begin and had little to no time to prepare for the interview.

A common theme seems to be that we need to be leaders and not followers on this file and that the government has failed significantly at this. The fact remains that climate change is a scientific issue and not a political one and it is a shame that the government has made it an issue of partisanship.

Many voices, many positions from COP-15

A HaltonDoesCopenhagen Blog Entry

As the talks begin to wind down here at COP-15 and we hear news breaking of a 5-country deal to at least bring some substance out of this event, we are beginning to reflect on our two weeks here. We will blog extensively with our thoughts on the agreement and more to come once we have time to digest it. In the meantime, one of the things that helped push towards a climate deal on the inside were the demonstrations going on in the Bella Center.

No doubt many of you have heard about the ugly protests that went on outside the Bella Center, but there was an enormous amount of smaller scale demonstrations taking place inside as hundreds of NGOs with various interests strategized about how best to get their point across and their voices heard.

Two of particular interest to us were a sit in that took place on the final day that NGOs were allowed inside the building. While the UNFCCC never told any NGOs in advance that they would be removed from the Bella Centre as the world leaders congregated, many NGOs decided to make the most of their final moments in the Bella Center. They took seats with signs stating that they would not leave until a meaningful, legally binding agreement was reached. These types of protests leave us with mixed feelings – awareness of issues often requires extreme measures, and peaceful protest has its place in any function. However, much of these types of demonstrations just seemed to slow down progress of the conference. The mass protest on Wednesday essentially temporarily shut down the conference – with transit being halted, pepper spray in the air, and mass amounts of chaos and confusion. It is difficult to imagine a less effective way to push for progress in a conference than to halt the conference altogether. Still, this sit in is an excellent example of the ways in which voices of dissent were heard on a daily basis in the Bella Center.

The other side of the demonstration coin came from approved demonstrations where particular groups got permission from the UNFCCC to participate in organized and creative acts to get their message across. We would come across these many times daily at the conference and they often drew us in with their peaceful but hard hitting messages. For example, one group used the slogan “Africa: One Voice, One Position” to illustrate the unity in Africa in calling for a fair deal for the developing world. A large crowd gathered around and called out names of African nations followed by a chorus response of “One Voice, One Position”. It hit home the point of how unified the continent is and how determined they are not to be taken advantage of. In the videos that follow you can see a clip of the protest, followed by a short interview with one of the organizers who details some of what Africa is looking to achieve through climate negotiations.