Copenhagen conference opens today

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opened this morning with the usual calls from UNFCCC Secretariat Yvo de Boer and Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen calling for the need for a "strong, ambitious climate agreement here in Copenhagen."

After the obligatory singing from a youth choir, and a somewhat dramatic video of a young girl envisioning her future in where no climate agreement, the conference officially kicked off on what felt like rather a somber mood, as speaker after speaker reminded the delegates from over 190 countries on the urgency of creating a climate agreement.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) addressed the stolen emails from the University of East Anglia, declaring that the "panel 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". 

During the initial ten days of the conference, most of the work will be carried out by negotiators refining proposals for reduction of CO2 emissions, adaptation, and increasing funds for mitigation.

The most crucial part of the conference will be the final two days, when 110 world leaders will arrive at the conference to ultimately "seal the deal" for a global climate treaty.

"Climate change really is a matter of life and death for some on this planet, and we must never lose sight of this fact"

The following was written by Canadian Youth Delegate Jennie McDowell from Guelph, Ontario, in a series of essays on the last two weeks in Poznan, Poland.

It has been an incredibly emotional and exhausting last few days here in Poznan. On Friday, the 14th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change concluded with very little progress.

Developing countries pleaded into the wee hours of the night for a more rigorous outcome on issues such as indigenous rights in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries, and the Adaptation Fund that raises money from climate-friendly development projects to fund adaptation measures in developing countries.

Unfortunately, the economic crisis prevailed the agendas of the wealthiest nations, and resulted in a terrible stubbornness in their position. They refused to make Adaptation Funding more accessible, transparent, and profitable for developing countries. Some bully countries, including Canada, also pushed for language that intently does not recognize rights of indigenous peoples, but rather protects individual person's rights - a sneaky loophole that means they can put caps on deforestation practices, even if they are livelihoods for some of the worlds poorest and most isolated communities.

The developed North also succeeded in ensuring that there was very little additional ambition in terms of mitigating climate change in the new text. In fact, the "new" text was hardly a word different from what was agreed upon in Bali last year. Translation: no progress. We are really in a bad situation now to achieve a global agreement next year in Copenhagen that will ensure we have a new "Kyoto Protocol" in place before the current one expires in 2012.

But I have hope. The youth were once again an incredible force at the conference. Everyone noticed our energy, expertise, and dedication to this soul-consuming challenge. In our debrief this weekend, despite our despair and deflation, we found the energy to start building the next movement for Copenhagen. We defined our victories, and laid out a roadmap to get us there. There are plans to mobilize thousands of youth around the world, make climate change a voting issue in the developed north, and plan our policy strategies and actions to drive our governments to take stronger action next year in Copenhagen. It's not a want, it's a must. A need. Survival is non-negotiable. Climate change really is a matter of life and death for some on this planet, and we must never lose sight of this fact.

"Our government is acting to weaken an international agreement, and they are doing it in our names"

The following is written by Canadian Youth Delegate Katherine Trajan from Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Compared to the struggling economy and auto-industry bailouts, the global climate change negotiations that occurred in Poznan the past two weeks have enjoyed a dearth of media coverage - luckily for Harper’s beleaguered government, and unluckily for Canadians (and the rest of the world’s citizens), who will be living with the fall-out of these failed negotiations.

I fear that two basic truths are escaping the consciousness of many Canadians (or at least our media consciousness): one – our current economic crisis is only a shadow of what we will experience if we continue to allow climate change to run rampant, and two – our government is actively holding the world back from a global deal that could significantly combat climate change.

In Poznan I was shocked by the fact that Canada is recognized internationally as the greatest obstruction to a global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our government is acting to weaken an international agreement, and they are doing it in our names, despite an overwhelming majority of Canadians claiming to want our government to take decisive action on climate change.

This means that either our government is acting entirely out of line with the desires of Canadians, or we as a nation prioritize superficial propping-up of environmentally destructive and uneconomical industries over the long-term health and prosperity of our country and our planet.

While I was indeed somewhat disillusioned by the UN process I observed in Poznan, I still refuse to believe that Canadians would give our government the mandate to negotiate for a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions that world scientists say would lead to “catastrophic” climate change.

These are frightening times. The world’s climate is changing faster than anyone had predicted, aggravating already dire issues such as biodiversity loss, health, food production and water supply, and introducing new ones such as rising sea levels and extreme weather events. At the same time, we are confronted by economic turmoil that threatens to turn into a recession more severe than any experienced since the Great Depression.

The way forward is not through perpetuating the systems that brought us to this state of environmental and economic crisis; increasing our dependence on fossil fuels and related industries will only hurt us in the long run, and will do little if anything to help us now. We must invest in the technologies and infrastructure that will allow us to simultaneously tackle climate change and the economic disaster.

Do not allow our government to define our future within constraints that we know lead to environmental, economic, and social devastation. Let us rally the courage and vision needed to meet the challenge of climate change, and in so doing create a future that is empowering and inspirational for all of us, and for all of our communities. Let us join the world in the most momentous and vital collaborative effort in the history of humanity.

"How could we have faced disaster and extinction in the eye, and looked away knowingly?"

It has been said so much that it might be losing its effect, but it is worth repeating nonetheless that climate change is the most critical problem facing humanity and the survival of it. It is a problem that is going to require what no other problem in the past has required: full scale global co-operation on the part of each and every country in the world, for an issue that supersedes national boundaries. It is a problem that is challenging the discourse of what it means to achieve "progress" in society (which seems to have been defined with increased emissions spewing) and causing massive reflection on the way our world is, and the way we live our lives.

Evidence has already projected how rising sea levels and sea temperatures will effect the world, and the disasters of climate change through intensified natural disasters is just "a taste" of the full out calamity of what climate change will bring. Scientists who have dedicated their lives to the issue have said that global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2015 and then start to come down to combat the worst effects of climate change. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and for a new effective global agreement to begin in 2013, negotiations need to conclude in 2009 in Copenhagen.

As Yvo de Boer, executive secretary the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said, the countdown to Copenhagen is on and the failure for the world to agree on climate agreement would be "disastrous".  But Poznan barely just reaffirmed what was established in Bali last year save for a few tiny victories, and many countries are still either delaying putting forth positions, or have put forth positions that do not address the problem at all (Canada).

The road to Copenhagen begins today, but will countries get their act together, and solve the greatest problem ever facing humanity? Or will people in the future look back at this time and think, how could we have faced disaster and extinction in the eye, and looked away knowingly?

Poznan: "A major missed opportunity"

Two weeks. 8,000 participants. Endless hours of talking, close-door meetings, and too many perogies consumed to count. What did it all amount to?

For a more immediate perspective, the closing session which went on hours after midnight, governments agreed to "submit proposals" for the treaty's text before the next conference in Copenhagen and a commitment to shift into "full negotiating mode" next year.

"We will now move to the next level of negotiations, which involves crafting a concrete negotiating text for the agreed outcome," said the conference President, Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki. Meetings are planned for Bonn in June 2009, where parties agreed that a first draft of the text would be available. Apart from the seminal climate change conference in Copenhagen next year, the UNFCCC will also organized and additional three meetings.

Small successes were made in Poznan, such as the agreement that the Kyoto Protocol's Adaptation Fund would have legal capacity to grant developing countries direct access to about $60 million. The fund will be released next year, and expects to help the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations.

"I think this is a very important accomplishment, making the adaptation fund operational," said head of Indonesia's National Council for Climate Change secretariat, Agus Purnomo.

However in terms of the broader picture, many observers in Poznan have felt that the conference was a "major missed opportunity". Progress was obviously slow and others observed that the two-week talks brought little progress on the most contentious issues - cuts in emissions blamed for climate change.

"This was a moment in time when real leaders would have stepped up and taken the positions that would combat the economic and climate crisis at the same time," said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. "Instead, industrialized countries preached sermons about the importance of climate protection in the Poznan plenary while lacking or attacking policies to make it happen at home -- a serious sign of climate hypocrisy."

Nonetheless, UN officials said the talks kept the world on the path toward a new treaty to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 to roll back the threat of global warming.

“Governments have sent a strong political signal that despite the financial and economic crisis, significant funds can be mobilized for both mitigation and adaptation in developing countries with the help of a clever financial architecture and the institutions to deliver the financial support,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“We now have a much clearer sense of where we need to go in designing an outcome which will spell out the commitments of developed countries, the financial support required and the institutions that will deliver that support as part of the Copenhagen outcome,” he added.

And so now the waiting game begins for 2009, and what the year will bring for a global climate agreement. This time next year, will the world be rejoicing, or will it be the defining moment in time where we will be told we failed?

Canada: the worst country at the Poznan UN talks

On the final day of negotiations at the Poznan UN Climate Conference, Canada was named the most obstructive country, winning a total of 10 "Colossal Fossil" awards. The Fossil awards are presented and selected from the Climate Action Network, a group that includes more than 400 non-governmental organizations.

"Canada played a shameful role here in Poznan, as this 'prize' confirms," said Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada.

"Canada needs to stop blocking progress and finally start showing some leadership."

It was definitely difficult standing there and watching Canada be named the country that has been the most obstructive towards a new global climate agreement, especially with revelations a couple of days ago that Canada had the second worst climate change plan in the world, ahead of only Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing that I have witnessed is the various ways in which Minister Prentice and chief ambassador Michael Martin in Poznan have dodged the accusations and have kept insisting that they are playing a "constructive" role in Poznan.

"People are quite concerned about this and they've made it clear that they want to see this as a priority, and so the government is addressing it as such," Prentice said in a press conference which I attended.

"Not everyone necessarily agrees with our positions, however, we have been quite clear that we wish to be a constructive force in concluding an effective international protocol."

Minister Prentice insists that he believes in the climate science put forth by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which calls for reduction targets of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020, however the proposals and positions being put forth are either defiant or completely ignore the science.

Also worrisome coming out of this conference are actions by Canada that have implications for indigenous peoples.

"The actions of Canada in Poland are designed to undermine the rights of indigenous people here and elsewhere," said AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine. "It's completely unacceptable."

As part of the talks, negotiators were considering the extent of the rights that indigenous people have over the forests they live in. But Canada and a number of other countries argued successfully against making mention of these rights in a new international climate-change pact.

With the political discourse now focusing on the economy, will the Canadian public notice and urge that climate change become a top priority? In my question to him, Minister Prentice suggested that he couldn't tell me "how often" climate change would come up in parliament. But with the deadline for a new climate agreement due in 2009 and Canada's damaging proposals currently being put forth, it seems to me that climate change should become the core issues that politicians and all Canadians should care about, before its too late.

Final Fossils of the Day

The Fossil of the Day had its final ceremony at the end of the conference.

1st Place: JAPAN, RUSSIA, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA... and CANADA
These group of four countries (Canada in particular they say) wins a fossil for insisting that they haven't been obstructing progress, using the fact that they reaffirmed the decisions on targets made in Bali.

2nd Place: EUROPEAN UNION

The EU takes second Fossil for its Climate and Energy Package. After stressing here at the conference that Europe supports a 2-degree climate target, the Brussels agreement charts a course for a catastrophic four-degree rise in global temperatures. 

3rd Place: RUSSIA

Russia takes third place for the Russian Head of Delegation's final statement pronouncing that the 25-40% targets for 2020 are quote "unfounded". Those targets are founded on the work of the Nobel prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Canadian youth to UN: "I feel ashamed when countries like mine who have so much, do so little."

At the end of long line of country statements to the UN on their positions on climate change, intergovernmental organizations and civil society members were allowed to make a strictly 2 minute max speech. The international youth was also "given" space to make a statement as well.

Half the world's population. And two minutes to heard on an issue we would have to deal with the consequences with.

Taryn McKenzie-Mohr of Canada, Leah Wickham of the South Pacific Islands, Eline Crossland of Denmark, and Kartikeya Singh of India, addressed the UN plenary with a no-holds bar plea for countries to get their act together, and stop delaying.

The following is the entire speech in full:

Taryn (Canada)
“I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world.”

Those were the words of a young girl addressing the Rio Summit. At the time of that speech I was just a year old, 16 years later you are still unable to reach an agreement to secure my future.

I feel ashamed when countries like mine who have so much, do so little. I feel outraged when they trade basic human rights for their own self interest. Developed countries must show leadership and if they don’t it will be the most unconscionable act in the history of humanity.

Kartikeya (India)
In my ancestral village in, India, farmers have never been to a shopping mall, nor have they had the luxury of owning a car. NO, they do not know the words “global warming,” but they do know that the seasons are changing.

Address this global challenge, overcome greed and fear. Greed is embedded in the ‘growth’ culture of wealthy nations. Our fear stops us from changing to the sustainable lifestyle, the sustainable economy we need.

We ask for leadership that overcomes these barriers.

Leah Wickham (South Pacific Islands)
For small island nations, negative climate impacts are happening today.

Our islands are drowning. We are going underwater.

We have a right to existence on this earth.

This right is no less than developed nations, but, if you do not take action, we face the loss of our islands, our culture and our identity.

Over 80 nations have signed the youth pledge calling for the survival of all countries and peoples.

This must form the basis of the next agreement and we will hold you to your word.

Eline (Denmark)

This week, my region has grieved us deeply this week by failing to take bold action.

We need your courage. Other countries are backing away from previous commitments. We need your ambition.

Change may be coming, but we need hope to translate into action.

Do not derail our journey to a sustainable future.

The train to Copenhagen is already moving, youth are on board, are you?

Survival is not negotiable.

Opposition critics meet first time since signing coalition

Three federal environment opposition critics Liberal Ken Dryden, Bloc Bernard Bigras, and NDP Linda Duncan, along with Green party leader Elizabeth came together to discuss climate change with the 25 Canadian youth attending the UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland. According to the group, this was the first time that members of the coalition had come together to focus on a specific issue.

"It's dance time, and its a difficult time," commented Dryden, the M.P. for York-Centre.

"There is a new face in terms of expression of the Canadian position, but the words behind the face are different. The Canadian position is a waiting position, waiting for Obama," he said.

NDP Linda Duncan, M.P. for Edmonton-Strathcona, said that the real issue for Canada will be energy integration, and although Obama represents a new page for America's climate policies, we will still have to be vigilant. "We're going to do this with a friendly president, so we have to be more aware. It's about the whole future of Canada."

Dryden countered that Prime Minister Harper has always been a skeptic of the climate change science, and his "change" on the issue was only a political change once he started to realize Canadians cared about action on climate change.

"Mr. Harper never established climate change as a priority."

The conversation also quickly turned to the coalition government, with the pro-roguing of the government just occurring a week ago.

"I can see why there are a few oppositions in the public mind (to the coalition)", commented Dryden.

"This isn't part of our tradition in any way that it feels like its there, a precedence. Also it is this anxious time, so that also make me feel disquieted by it."

"And it also has to do with the support of the Bloc," he said.

Dryden said that Bloc support to a coalition government for the average Canadian outside of Quebec made Canadians squirm just a little bit. But he said that there were examples of coalition governments all over the world that were successful.

"Mr. Harper has absolutely poisoned the dynamics of parliament, there is no real possibility to trust him. He has lost his right to govern, we need a new Prime Minister," he said.

Elizabeth May perhaps has the sternest words for the Prime Minister and his climate policy: "I would rather die than to see government block progress on the only agreement we are going to get (on climate change)," she said.

"He wasn't elected Prime Minister. He was elected to his seat, as were 308 people. The Prime Minister is not the President."

1:07am and the negotiations continue

Its 1:07am Poznan time on this last night of the Poznan climate talks, and I've just got word that the negotiations are continuing throughout the night. As of this moment, it is still unclear what will be coming out of these closed-door meetings, and what will conclusion will have arisen when dawn breaks Saturday morning.

The Poznan talks have been a bit awkward, a feeling that many delegates have known since the start of the conference. The nature of this halfway point between the seminal Bali conference where an action plan for a post-2012 agreement was made, and the Copenhagen conference next year which is the deadline for a new agreement is recognized here in Poznan. This feeling is further emphasized by the lame-duck administration that is here representing Bush. It seems that its not only Canada that is awaiting further details of Obama's climate plan, though it would seem any proposals that he has might not make it in time for the UN's 2009 deadline.

No one that I have spoken to seems to be 100% clear of what exactly is supposed to come out of this conference, though I've heard "clear national commitments" on several positions on reduction targets, adaptation financing, and positions on deforestation from land use and clean development mechanisms mentioned several times.

At around 8pm I saw Canadian Environment Jim Prentice enter the site and walk prominently to what looked like yet another meeting, and chief negotiator Michael Martin rush to another one.

When the daylight breaks and in the days and weeks to follow, it will become abundantly clear what if anything was accomplished at this conference, and what it means for the development of a new global climate agreement by 2009.