Yesterday, world leaders focused on trying to shift the climate talks into another gear in order to reach a conclusion today, Friday. "There is less than 24 hours. If we carry on like this, it will be a failure," warned French President Nicolas Sarkozy from the conference podium. "Time is against us, let's stop posturing.... A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us," he said in his speech.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown – who has been especially active in driving negotiations forward along with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi – also stressed that: "We cannot permit the politics of narrow self interest to prevent a policy for human survival. For all of us there is no greater national interest than the common future of this planet."
In contrast, yesterday, Zapatero chose his eight minutes in the spotlight to focus on how the world should tackle climate change. The President on Spain divided the new energy model into four key areas: “saving and efficiency, investments in renewables, a shared technological effort, and a democratisation of the ability to generate energy”. Zapatero has insisted a great deal in this final point, arguing that “technological advances will mean that renewables energy can be stored and can be generated by citizens themselves, which will contribute to bringing an end to many dominant positions that those with energy have over those without”.
Zapatero’s speech followed the lines of many of the arguments this journalist has listened to over the last few days in the forums organised in the sidelines of COP15 by European and US photovoltaic and wind energy associations, as well as those often employed by ecologists. Zapatero rounded off his speech by saying that “we are here to save the Planet where there are too many poor and too many rich. The Earth does not belong to anyone, only to the wind”.
This closing phrase and his opening remark about the end of the era of carbon has raised questions among Spanish journalists in Copenhagen who have questioned how Zapatero’s message about the Earth belonging only to the wind should be interpreted and, above all, where the Spanish government’s recent announcement of support for the Spanish coal industry fits into this scenario.
WWF qualified Zapatero’s speech as “insufficient and ambiguous”. According to Mar Asunción, head of WWF Spain’s Climate Change Programme: “Spain is going to be president of the European Union in less than a month. It is time for our government to step up to the mark in the fight against climate change, both in terms of commitments and additional measures within our borders, and by supporting international objectives to cut emissions and provide sufficient funding to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change”.
This said, Zapatero did stress on various occasions that “an agreement in Copenhagen must be reached, here and now”. He also pointed to the two countries that can do most to ensure an agreement becomes reality. “Neither the US nor China can fail or shirk their responsibility”.
More optimistic than yesterday
Zapatero reminded those present of the money and emissions cuts that have been pledged by the EU, and called on China and the US to do the same. “The EU is committed to reducing its emissions by 30% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels”. With regard to the sticky subject of money: “[the EU] will fund the fight against climate change in poor nations with Euros 7.2 billion over the next three years".
The funding which US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, talked about yesterday helped to dissipate the air of gloom pervading over the conference on Wednesday: Clinton announced that her country is prepared to mobilise US dollars 100 billion to help developing countries adapt to climate change. She even announced that the US could contribute to a new fund between now and 2012 to finance urgent adaptation measures. Europe has already offered Euros 2.4 billion per annum and Japan Euros 5 billion.
Nonetheless, the US expects to receive something in exchange. It has already linked its contribution to China accepting certain obligations such as letting international observers verify China’s actual emissions – an issue that clearly raises concerns in the West. Beijing has said that it will not accept “meddling” of this type. “I believe that some countries are looking for an excuse to justify their obstructive and unconstructive role,” Yu Qingtai, head of the Chinese delegation said yesterday.
Clinton has tried twisting China’s arm, but here in Copenhagen everyone is trying to persuade each other. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, arrived in Copenhagen after saying in Berlin that “honestly, the 4% reduction on 1990 levels proposed by the US is by no means ambitious”. Meanwhile, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is always headstrong, even took his turn at the podium in the plenary hall to ask leaders to negotiate over dinner if necessary, so that we do not all return home empty handed.
While prospects of a meaningful agreement certainly improved late last night, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done today if the world’s leaders are to present a document this afternoon setting out a clear roadmap for the future. Back in March, Yvo de Boers, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that if the four key questions of how much industrialised countries are willing to reduce their emissions, how much major developing countries are willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions, how the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change will be financed, and how that money will be managed, could be answered during the COP15, then he would be happy. The question is now, will he have a smile on his face by the end of today.
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