Live from “Hopenhagen”
Arriving in Copenhagen the first thing you notice is how clean, modern and well-organized the city is. Well-served by an efficient public transport system, the bicycle is a favored means of transport and almost all main roads have wide bicycle lanes. Climate Change Conference delegates are offered bicycle rentals for free and have been quick on the uptake.
A City on a Mission
Walking through the airport, one is greeted with the anticipated billboards and posters advertising COP15 and, the many household name firms who desire to be associated with it, but it is lower key than might have been expected in keeping with this city’s apparent image. Arriving at my hotel, I am handed two 200kg CO2 retirement certificates purchased on my behalf by the hotel which claims to be a part of the first Carbon neutral hotel chain, and provided with a small brochure which highlights all of the events and exhibitions associated with the Conference. And yes—Al Gore is in town! COP15 is definitely a show replete with pop band entertainment and pop politicians—but it is also deadly serious business.
Last night I visited “Hopenhagen,” an exhibition in the Square outside of City Hall. Lit up in bright green and featuring a huge Earth Globe that displays facts about climate change, the exhibition is difficult to miss. Here you can learn a great deal about many of the issues that the United Nations Conference is facing and it is symptomatic of the way that the city has tried to bring the importance of the conference to its citizens in both a fun and informative manner. Indeed, almost every square and available public space in the city includes an exhibit which range from the top 100 sights that may be threatened photograph exhibition to large tree stumps on display from the Amazon rain forest.
Conference Update
This morning I headed out to the conference itself where yesterday’s main news was the release of the World Meteorological Organization’s annual findings which suggest that this decade has been the warmest on record and 2009 will most likely be the fifth warmest year ever recorded. The organization noted that above normal temperatures had been recorded on most continents in 2009 with North America being the exception.
I was greeted by small and friendly demonstrations by both Greenpeace and groups from African nations who demand that the polluting nations pay to help them develop in a CO2 constrained environment. This is really one of the challenges before the conference—how to fund the developing world’s requirements under any new agreement and it is one that has already caused issues as the UK’s Guardian newspaper published what it purports to be a Danish compromise draft of a final agreement which didn’t sit well with leaders of developing economies. China has also criticized U.S. and European Union CO2 reduction proposals as being insufficient. However, the UN Secretary General remains confident that an “historic and robust” agreement will still be reached. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson delivers a keynote address and Climate Action Network Europe, a group of European NGOs, presents an update of developed countries’ targets for reducing emissions, among other speakers.
The EPA Leads the U.S. Efforts
The EPA has given President Obama a new way to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions by determining that scientific evidence clearly shows they are endangering Americans’ health. That means the EPA could regulate those gases without the approval of the U.S. Congress. “We need legislation” to remove any uncertainty that businesses might have, Jackson said. “The reason for legislation is to take that question out of their minds …we will work closely with our Congress to pass legislation to lower our greenhouse gases more than 80 percent by 2050.” Jackson also stated the United States would take “reasonable efforts” to cut emissions. Indeed, CommodityPoint’s just released Emissions Trading and Monitoring software study performed in conjunction with Global Change Associates, demonstrates that most companies are awaiting “regulatory certainty” before acting and many U.S. firms have yet to get started on inventorying their CO2 sources and emissions.
In reality, the real work of the conference will only take place at the high level discussions scheduled for next week and to be attended by President Obama and many other of the world’s leading politicians.
Tonight I will be attending one of the many “side events” here in “Hopenhagen,” which I will cover in my next IssueAlert article.
