| Louisville Climate Action Network |
This page was
most recently
updated on
10 Dec 09.
most recently
updated on
10 Dec 09.
Reports from Copenhagen
| Monday, 07 Dec 09 |
It was a fairly predictable opening day with both uplifting and threatening speeches at
the plenary session. As the conference center is packed—like the KY State Fair on its
opening day—the UN rationed tickets to that session. So I watched, along with several
thousand of my closest friends, on a hallway TV monitor.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, right, gave a very solid
and convincing defense of the science behind the IPCC
reports. He was scathingly harsh in his characterizations
of those who had recently purloined e-mail from the East
Anglia University.
The Executive Secretary of the UN climate change conference (the top UN climate
change official) Yvo De Boer, gave a very stirring and passionate plea for action and
higher ambitions (read: bigger reductions of greenhouse gas emissions) by the
developed, industrialized nations.
These lead speeches were followed by briefer interventions—usually 3-4 minutes
each—by representatives of other countries. As in prior climate change conferences, I
found many of the most compelling were from small island states, like the Solomon
Islands, who are every day contending with rising sea levels, adverse impacts to fishing
and a host of other impacts.
The head of that delegation plead for the developed nations to "be champions for the
survival of humanity. Are we ready to fight against the suffering of humanity in
developing countries? Who is it? It is you and me. It is the innocent children of poor
islands...who suffer the most. I am calling for change. We want change now. We will
never give up. We are fighting for our people and our children." He received a
sustained round of applause.
The US gov't has its largest-ever formal presence
at these conferences. In addition to an obligatory
exhibit where the other many exhibits are located,
the US has a special area further away with a large
display area. It includes this high tech digital globe
display, right, of climate change effects. Beside it
is a room where, for the duration of the conference,
it is presenting a full array of speakers. Today, it
was mostly scientists, giving back-to-back talks on
the various effects of climate change.
I attended several of these talks today: on glacial melting in Greenland, ice shelf
melting in Antarctica, ocean acidification and how the combination of rapid climate
change and self-inflicted massive environmental degradation may have done in the
ancient Mayan civilization. I was impressed by the caliber of the scientists and the
apparent strength of their science.
The Sierra Club group had our first gathering, including the dynamic and enthusiastic
student group. For many, it’s their first UN conference; there were plenty of dazed
looks. But it is so very heartening to see the thousands of young people at this
conference that were so energized by this issue.
The Sierra Club is also a member of the Climate Action Network (CAN), an umbrella
group of about 500 organizations. It acts as a coordinating body for the members’
international advocacy on climate change. CAN has been in existence for years—it was
very active at Kyoto in 1997. And, while it is certainly structured and has hierarchy, it
operates with inordinate transparency and democracy. And some extremely bright
humans are active within it. CAN’s advocacy is widely seen as a very effective.
In one of its best known and longest running publicity efforts, CAN designates a country
(or group of countries) as the "Fossil of the Day" for doing something particularly
egregious. Today's award went to Canada for announcing that its reduction efforts
were non-negotiable, because, well, they call these meetings, “negotiations,” for a
reason.
Saudi Arabia was a close second for stating in the plenary that the hacked e-mail
proved that climate change science is fraudulent—not a good way to make friends on
the first day. In recent (Bush II) years, the US won more than its share of these awards;
I sense that expectations for the US have been raised considerably with the new
administration in place.
A couple of interesting numbers:
There are 5,000 accredited media people here—about one for every five other
attendees. Greenpeace has 300 representatives here. There were some mild protests
outside the conference today, but certainly nothing (yet) approaching what has been
seen at many WTO meetings. Well, enough for now.
By the way, a lot of the proceedings can be accessed live.
Art Williams
the plenary session. As the conference center is packed—like the KY State Fair on its
opening day—the UN rationed tickets to that session. So I watched, along with several
thousand of my closest friends, on a hallway TV monitor.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, right, gave a very solid
and convincing defense of the science behind the IPCC
reports. He was scathingly harsh in his characterizations
of those who had recently purloined e-mail from the East
Anglia University.
The Executive Secretary of the UN climate change conference (the top UN climate
change official) Yvo De Boer, gave a very stirring and passionate plea for action and
higher ambitions (read: bigger reductions of greenhouse gas emissions) by the
developed, industrialized nations.
These lead speeches were followed by briefer interventions—usually 3-4 minutes
each—by representatives of other countries. As in prior climate change conferences, I
found many of the most compelling were from small island states, like the Solomon
Islands, who are every day contending with rising sea levels, adverse impacts to fishing
and a host of other impacts.
The head of that delegation plead for the developed nations to "be champions for the
survival of humanity. Are we ready to fight against the suffering of humanity in
developing countries? Who is it? It is you and me. It is the innocent children of poor
islands...who suffer the most. I am calling for change. We want change now. We will
never give up. We are fighting for our people and our children." He received a
sustained round of applause.
The US gov't has its largest-ever formal presence
at these conferences. In addition to an obligatory
exhibit where the other many exhibits are located,
the US has a special area further away with a large
display area. It includes this high tech digital globe
display, right, of climate change effects. Beside it
is a room where, for the duration of the conference,
it is presenting a full array of speakers. Today, it
was mostly scientists, giving back-to-back talks on
the various effects of climate change.
I attended several of these talks today: on glacial melting in Greenland, ice shelf
melting in Antarctica, ocean acidification and how the combination of rapid climate
change and self-inflicted massive environmental degradation may have done in the
ancient Mayan civilization. I was impressed by the caliber of the scientists and the
apparent strength of their science.
The Sierra Club group had our first gathering, including the dynamic and enthusiastic
student group. For many, it’s their first UN conference; there were plenty of dazed
looks. But it is so very heartening to see the thousands of young people at this
conference that were so energized by this issue.
The Sierra Club is also a member of the Climate Action Network (CAN), an umbrella
group of about 500 organizations. It acts as a coordinating body for the members’
international advocacy on climate change. CAN has been in existence for years—it was
very active at Kyoto in 1997. And, while it is certainly structured and has hierarchy, it
operates with inordinate transparency and democracy. And some extremely bright
humans are active within it. CAN’s advocacy is widely seen as a very effective.
In one of its best known and longest running publicity efforts, CAN designates a country
(or group of countries) as the "Fossil of the Day" for doing something particularly
egregious. Today's award went to Canada for announcing that its reduction efforts
were non-negotiable, because, well, they call these meetings, “negotiations,” for a
reason.
Saudi Arabia was a close second for stating in the plenary that the hacked e-mail
proved that climate change science is fraudulent—not a good way to make friends on
the first day. In recent (Bush II) years, the US won more than its share of these awards;
I sense that expectations for the US have been raised considerably with the new
administration in place.
A couple of interesting numbers:
There are 5,000 accredited media people here—about one for every five other
attendees. Greenpeace has 300 representatives here. There were some mild protests
outside the conference today, but certainly nothing (yet) approaching what has been
seen at many WTO meetings. Well, enough for now.
By the way, a lot of the proceedings can be accessed live.
Art Williams
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