The Danes have no one to blame but themselves and the EU for the failure of Copenhagen. They must be thankful to the OBAMA BASIC combine that was able to broker the semblance of a deal that saved them of facing more embarrassment. Had it been left to them " a good bye and go home empty handed " by the delegates of 192 nations would have risen. That Obama pulled the rabbit out of his hat at the last moment, speaks a lot about why he is becoming a respected statesman and not only yet another U.S. President like his predecessor. Several world leaders have indirectly criticised the Danish Premier Rasmussen for his poor leadership during the conference, especially after he took over the reins officially from originally appointed COP15 President Connie Hedegaard on 16 December
It is no secret that COP President Connie was almost forced to quit by the deliberate insult meted out to her by the EU keeping her out of a crucial closed door EU meeting . Her problem was that she wanted a more open and democratic climate at the summit and not one that let the EU to control the talks by using the host nation advantage and try divide the G77. The EU and the Danes had believed somehow that the BASIC combine would ultimately split or yield to their pressure tactics and agree under duress to accept the flawed EU accord, which was originally drafted by the Aussies and then thrusted by the Danes. They forgot the might of the economic clout of the emerging economies and the strong leadership of China, which has won many such eyeball to eyeball confrontations in the recent past.
The ungracious and scheming Danish hosts not only had to bear the shame of the tag of “Floppenhagen” as given by the German newsgroup Bild but was roundly criticised by most European nations as well as the Financial Times calling the Prime Ministers ham handed attempts of managing the summit after ejecting Connie, resulting in worsening the crisis. News agency AFP accused Rasmussen of speaking nonsense and newspapers from Switzerland to Britain were not willing to forgive Rasmussen for the Copenhagen bungling.
But Rasmussen was not the only one to blame. The devil was in the detail of the original Australian proposal. This modified by the French and British which made it worse and finally given to the hosts to present as the official draft of the Copenhagen accord, dared to spell out the unthinkable...…. The modern twentieth century world is in favour of equal rights of humans living in different nations of the world . It was indeed amateurish by Denmark and the EU delegates to think that they could force down the throat of the 192 UN delegates a draft devoid of equity. A draft previously rejected and discredited. The Aussie draft that had been criticised roundly by China and India and rejected by the G77 both at the pre-summit meets at Barcelona and Bangkok.
One of the critical issues that was the bone of contention was Equity and EUs version of the accord which was not acceptable by the developing world as it was not based on fair play and equity. Equity is very important in the modern day world were all men and women are considered equal under any democratic constitution in most part of the world. Equity is sacred. Equity cannot be sacrificed. Equity was absent in the Danish accord but brought back in the OBAMA BASIC Deal . No wonder it took just 2 hours for Obama to clinch the deal that EU failed to do in two years time at Copenhagen
As per the Danish accord ( the original Australia draft) redrafted, there would be unequal human rights to pollute by the rich and the poor people of the world.
EU & THE DANES tried their best to not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of #carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tones .per person.
This was a major bone of contention that would not ever be resolved unless the developing countries capsized under the tremendous pressure the the G7 mounted.
1)Deep emission cuts on BASIS of EQUITY in the OBAMA BASIC DEAL has now been enshrined in the Copenhagen treaty.It says unequivocally that
“ We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity”
No wonder the OBAMA BASIC deal comes out superior to the Danish Draft Accord at Copenhagen.
://bit.ly/7XwAG
I've consistently argued that equity is important and that the West needs to drastically cut back it's own emissions in order to leave India and other developing countries room to develop sustainably. But it wasn't the Danes alone who made Copenhagen into a fiasco. In fact, I would argue that the sham "deal" that Obama and the BASIC countries agreed to in closed-door sessions--and that other countries "took note" of is also a cynical farce. It requires absolutely nothing of the US and other rich countries and it puts the Kyoto protocol on slippery ground. I'd love to put my faith in Obama, but he's limited by his own domestic politics. As for our leadership, I argued last week that it is more clear than ever that our priorities were simply to stay on good terms with the West while protecting our right to business-as-usual development.
ReplyDeleteOne more note about equity: it is a very important principle. We need to struggle for it. But let's not forget that nature really doesn't care about what's fair! If the world keeps warming like it seems to be, then it is us that will bear the brunt of it. My point is that equitable solutions that do nothing will not have equitable outcomes! We need equitable solutions that actually get the job done!
Equitable emission quota could be the goal but never a solution . At the same time it is enough provocation for breaking a deal. The real solution is investment in Solar Energy, Windpower and Rainforest plantations that we have consistently argued in our presentations.
ReplyDeleteCOP15 : Bullshitting 15 Yrs on Climate Change
http://tinyurl.com/luzxss and our other COP15 Presentations on Slide Share. We have been emphasising on dumping Carbon trading and creating a Green Climate fund since Aug 09.
The OBAMA BASIC accord is a turning point.
It stops promising false Emission capping targets, which nations cannot and do not wish to adhere to and starts talk of a Green Climate Fund. Now the challenge of 2010 is to help grow the Green Climate fund into a $ 200 bn corpus p.a.to fund renewable energy and to make mass production possible in the emerging economies to make renewable energy cost competative to fossil fuel within a ten year frame work.
We are sure that can be achieved and are working on the same but it will take at least 7 to 8 months to create the final document. Our blog and presentations in various forums shall meanwhile keep on updating our readers.