What Is in Store for the UN Climate Change Conference to Be Run in Denmark in December 2009?
With the climate change convention scheduled to run in just a few weeks, I thought I would write about my thoughts on the debates about to take place. While I make a living as a realtor in Toronto, I do find some spare time to deliberate about something else than homes. Climate progression is one specific area that interests me.
From the 7th – 18th December this year Denmark is holding the United Nations Climate Change Conference. People attending the conference are hoping to reach an agreement on lessening the intensity of climate change from 2012. However, we shouldn’t see this conference as a symposium of climate change activists. Views are from one extreme to another.
Activists were counting on a new era in regards to climate change with the appointment of the new US president. The inquiry is what this age should look like. The Kyoto protocol was proclaimed as the way forward at one time, but now even environmentalists are distancing themselves from it.
The reduced emission rates agreed to back in 1997 (and never accomplished) are about to be reevaluated. The crowd around Obama long for an agreement on a 20% CO2 shrinkage by 2020 (from 2005 levels). The Kyoto protocol called for a 5% decline on the 1990 levels so the new figures are drastically higher. The protocols of Kyoto are being relaxed further even though there is a very lax attitude to keeping the the schedule in the first place.
This is not the only area of discord and there are other issues to look at. The North concludes Kyoto and ensuing environmental actions will have the largest impact on its economy, while the huge polluters of the South (like China, India, Brazil and South Africa) will remain untouched. The South collectively believes it’s in the right, because the North owes them a lot – southern countries are much more altered by climate problems than those in the North. With China emerging as a world power and the economic problems around the world, developing countries such as India and Brazil are not pleased about making sacrifices; though the North understand the need for higher fuel emissions in developing countries.
The movement for anti-climate change has another big issue in relation to the emissions trade. While supporters (largely government officials) claim that introducing market rules can offset the negative economic impact of emission restrictions, opponents see it as another chance for black market trade, cheating and scams. To circumvent this type of trade and the risk of climatic disaster, the adversaries want to see more control given to local communities.
The UN Climate change conference may produce some important decisions, but in my opinion they are unlikely to be anything impressive. The decisions may not be new, but what is new, is now activists are starting to form across the whole world. This means that there are more and more voices asking for change this year, and that can only be a good thing.