A U.S. poll says only 40 percent of Americans are happy with President Barack Obama’s performance at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen.
The Angus Reid Public Opinion Poll, however, found 57 percent support the commitment to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by half, relative to 1990 levels, by 2020, the market research group Vision Critical said Tuesday.
The online survey of 1,005 U.S. adults found 42 percent welcome a promise to hold the increase in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius and 39 percent agree with a pact to set up a fund to help poorer nations cope with climate change.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said Tuesday he’s inviting activists, scientists and government officials from around the world to an alternative climate conference following the failure of a summit in Copenhagen to produce binding agreements.
The leftist leader said the April 20-22 meeting in Cochabamba will include indigenous peoples, social movements, environmentalists and scientists as well as governments ”who want to work with their people.”
Morales said the meeting is meant partly to pressure industrialized nations to accept that they have a ”climate debt” to poor countries and will work toward an international court on environmental crimes.
Socialist or not, you have to admit that he has a point:
He denounced industrialized countries for pledging $10 billion a year to help countries meet the challenges of climate change, while spending ”trillions to fight unnecessary wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Obama Leads World to Historic, If Incomplete Climate Deal Progress Made Sets Stage for Fair, Ambitious, and Binding Deal in 2010
Copenhagen, Denmark–After two weeks of fraught, stalled negotiations, President Obama arrived in Copenhagen, built on the progress made yesterday by Secretary of State Clinton, personally negotiated with world leaders for hours, and tonight announced the elements of an international climate accord. The Sierra Club offered the following comments in response.
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
“The world’s nations have come together and concluded a historic–if incomplete–agreement to begin tackling global warming. Tonight’s announcement is but a first step and much work remains to be done in the days and months ahead in order to seal a final international climate deal that is fair, binding, and ambitious. It is imperative that negotiations resume as soon as possible.
“President Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States Senate. That a deal was reached at all is testament to President Obama’s leadership–all the more remarkable because of the very weak hand he was dealt because of the Senate’s failure to pass domestic clean energy and climate legislation. Now that the rest of the world–including countries like China and India–has made clear that it is willing to take action, the Senate must pass domestic legislation as soon as possible. America and the world can no longer be held hostage to petty politics and obstructionism.
“What was clear over the past two weeks is that there is no argument over the science of global warming or the urgency with which we must act. A parade of developed and developing counties alike made crystal clear that they would implement their national plans to tackle global warming and build the clean energy economy not because they were required to do so, but because it was simply in their own national interest to do so.
“The agreement reached here has all the ingredients necessary to construct a final treaty–a mitigation target of 2 degrees Celsius, nationally appropriate action plans, a mechanism for international climate finance, and transparency with regard to national commitments. President Obama has made much progress in past 11 months and it now appears that the U.S.–and the world–is ready to do the hard work necessary to finish what was started here in Copenhagen.
“A chilly two weeks in Copenhagen has given humanity its best chance of preventing the ravages of a warming world. Today’s deal is neither perfect nor complete, but we must not this chance slip away.”
On the day that the UN Climate talks officially closed, Friends of the Earth International warned against the false conclusion that the UN Climate Conference has adopted the ‘Copenhagen Accord.’
The Copenhagen Accord announced on December 18 by U.S. President Barack Obama was not adopted by delegates to the United Nations climate conference here. Instead, delegates merely ‘noted’ the agreement’s existence, giving it no force whatsoever.
Today rich countries led by the United States are pressuring poorer nations to ditch the UN process and sign onto the Copenhagen Accord. They are threatening poor nations that refuse to sign on with the loss of their share of the $100 billion that rich countries have pledged to compensate for climate impacts the rich countries themselves have caused.
UN officials are struggling to figure out what the Accord even means and how it’s related to the UN process, but what’s is clear is that it was not approved by the 192 countries that are members of the UNFCCC.
By signing onto the Accord, poor countries risk displacing the legitimate negotiation process taking place under the auspices of the UN.
The US is so desperate to claim a Copenhagen success that it is now attempting to destroy the existing climate process and sideline 20 years of real multilateral negotiation.
Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth International Chair, said:
“First the US came to Copenhagen with nothing new to offer, and now it’s trying to package the weak, flawed, unjust ‘Copenhagen Accord’ as a replacement for the UN process — and armtwist poor countries into signing on.
“President Bush ignored the UN process, now President Obama risks torpedoing it.
“Countries seeking a just and effective solution to climate change should not sign this illegitimate and distracting ‘Copenhagen Accord.’ They should instead ensure a rapid return to the formal UN process to achieve a fair, strong and legally binding agreement as soon as possible within the next year.
“Developing countries have shown real leadership in Copenhagen and must not give up the UNFCCC for the ‘Copenhagen Accord.’ “
“I want to remove all doubt,” she said in an interview with CNN from Copenhagen. “This bill will get through the United States Senate and it will pass the congress and it will be signed by the president in this congres, which means during the year 2010.”
With only hours left in the Copenhagen climate treaty talks we have obtained an early version of the final agreement’ draft text.
President Obama’s speech wrapped up a few minutes ago with nothing new announced. But as long as this session continues there remains hope that world leaders can deliver a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal.
Things continue to evolve and according to the draft version of the agreement, the major issue of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions cuts by what year, remains unanswered.
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. It is an honor for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. All of you would not be here unless you — like me — were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, it is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. This much we know.
The question, then, before us is no longer the nature of the challenge — the question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, as the world watches us today, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance.
I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That’s why I come here today — not to talk, but to act. (Applause.)
Now, as the world’s largest economy and as the world’s second largest emitter, America bears our responsibility to address climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility. That’s why we’ve renewed our leadership within international climate change negotiations. That’s why we’ve worked with other nations to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. That’s why we’ve taken bold action at home — by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.
These mitigation actions are ambitious, and we are taking them not simply to meet global responsibilities. We are convinced, as some of you may be convinced, that changing the way we produce and use energy is essential to America’s economic future — that it will create millions of new jobs, power new industries, keep us competitive, and spark new innovation. We’re convinced, for our own self-interest, that the way we use energy, changing it to a more efficient fashion, is essential to our national security, because it helps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and helps us deal with some of the dangers posed by climate change.
So I want this plenary session to understand, America is going to continue on this course of action to mitigate our emissions and to move towards a clean energy economy, no matter what happens here in Copenhagen. We think it is good for us, as well as good for the world. But we also believe that we will all be stronger, all be safer, all be more secure if we act together. That’s why it is in our mutual interest to achieve a global accord in which we agree to certain steps, and to hold each other accountable to certain commitments.
After months of talk, after two weeks of negotiations, after innumerable side meetings, bilateral meetings, endless hours of discussion among negotiators, I believe that the pieces of that accord should now be clear.
First, all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. I’m pleased that many of us have already done so. Almost all the major economies have put forward legitimate targets, significant targets, ambitious targets. And I’m confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, and by more than 80 percent by 2050 in line with final legislation.
Second, we must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and exchange this information in a transparent manner. These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty. They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we’re living up to our obligations. Without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page.
I don’t know how you have an international agreement where we all are not sharing information and ensuring that we are meeting our commitments. That doesn’t make sense. It would be a hollow victory.
Number three, we must have financing that helps developing countries adapt, particularly the least developed and most vulnerable countries to climate change. America will be a part of fast-start funding that will ramp up to $10 billion by 2012. And yesterday, Secretary Hillary Clinton, my Secretary of State, made it clear that we will engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if — and only if — it is part of a broader accord that I have just described.
Mitigation. Transparency. Financing. It’s a clear formula — one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities. And it adds up to a significant accord — one that takes us farther than we have ever gone before as an international community.
I just want to say to this plenary session that we are running short on time. And at this point, the question is whether we will move forward together or split apart, whether we prefer posturing to action. I’m sure that many consider this an imperfect framework that I just described. No country will get everything that it wants. There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and no obligations with respect to transparency. They think that the most advanced nations should pay a higher price; I understand that. There are those advanced nations who think that developing countries either cannot absorb this assistance, or that will not be held accountable effectively, and that the world’s fastest-growing emitters should bear a greater share of the burden.
We know the fault lines because we’ve been imprisoned by them for years. These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades, and we have very little to show for it other than an increased acceleration of the climate change phenomenon. The time for talk is over. This is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward, continue to refine it and build upon its foundation. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be part of a historic endeavor — one that makes life better for our children and our grandchildren.
Or we can choose delay, falling back into the same divisions that have stood in the way of action for years. And we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year, perhaps decade after decade, all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no time to waste. America has made our choice. We have charted our course. We have made our commitments. We will do what we say. Now I believe it’s the time for the nations and the people of the world to come together behind a common purpose.
We are ready to get this done today — but there has to be movement on all sides to recognize that it is better for us to act than to talk; it’s better for us to choose action over inaction; the future over the past — and with courage and faith, I believe that we can meet our responsibility to our people, and the future of our planet. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
A draft copy of a confidential memo to the UNFCCC Secretariat has surfaced here at the Copenhagen climate talks that has some pretty disturbing analysis.
Washington, DC – A dozen young people are staging a ’sit-in’ at the US State Department to demand that President Obama and world leaders at climate talks in Copenhagen produce a global treaty that will avert climate catastrophe.
“We’re not leaving until we get a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty from our representatives in Copenhagen,” said Kim Huynh, one of the protesters.
“Already 300,000 people are year are dying because of the effects of climate change, many more are seeing their futures destroyed. We need a real climate deal that will help ensure the survival of vulnerable people and nations and prevent climate disasters at home,” she added.
While occupying the main hall of the State Department, the youth are reading out names of 12 million people around the world who are calling for a strong new international climate treaty. The names come from a petition coordinated by the TckTckTck campaign — a broad alliance of faith and youth groups, trade unions and major development and environmental organizations.
The DC sit-in follows a similar event in Copenhagen yesterday when youth sat in the main hall in at the UN climate summit reading out the lists of names. Canadian activists staged a simultaneous sit-in at Prime Minster Steven Harper’s office.
Participants are calling on youth within the United States and worldwide to stage further sit-ins at strategic locations on Friday when President Obama will join over 100 heads of state in Copenhagen for the final day of the climate summit.
“Copenhagen is a pivotal moment for our generation.” said Julie Erickson, another protester. “We need a Real Climate Deal. We cannot allow our leaders to fail us with collapse or a sham agreement. And if they refuse to hear our calls for action, then we must make them listen.”
“So far, the talks have been mired by conflict and low ambition from the United States and other countries. We welcome today’s announcement from Secretary Clinton to a global fund of $100bn in climate finance – but the US still has huge distance to travel on other areas, especially our short-term emissions reductions,” said Erickson.
“As Barack Obama prepares to leave for Copenhagen, he holds the fate of the world in his hands,” said Erickson. “He has the power to unlock a deal with countries like China and India by laying real climate finance numbers on the table.”
