Countdown to Copenhagen : Only 11 days to go. Meanwhile, White House Officials declared: Obama will attend the Copenhagen Conference.
A thumb up for the "Green Thumbs"?
A thumb up for the “Green Thumbs”? White House officials have announced this evening that the United States President, Barack Obama will come to Copenhagen in order to take part in COP15, United Nations’ conference on world climate change. This is the first confirmation for the president’s participation in this global mega event coming from official sources. Only two weeks ago Obama stated that he will come to Copenhagen only if he felt that his presence there could make any meaningful contribution.
The COP15 conference will be held in 7-18 December. According to the White House announcement today, Obama will arrive in the Danish capital on 9 December, two days after the summit’s jump-off. Following the conference, Obama will precede to Oslo, in order to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Right now, Obama isn’t scheduled to return to the conference after receiving the prize. This is another mega event for Obama after hosting the G20 summit this year, the Pittsburgh Summit and a one that he needs to take good advantage of, since polls lately show his popularity is dropping rapidly.
COP15 is the official name of the Copenhagen climate change summit, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The COP is the highest body of the UNFCCC and consists of environment ministers who meet once a year to discuss developments in the convention. Among this year’s sponsors you can find DHL, Cisco and even BMW, Mercedes- Benz and Honda who probably trying to portray their image as environmentally friendly.
The Danish hosts announced that in addition to president Obama many more of his diplomatic counterparts have confirmed their participation in the conference. Among them 65 heads of states, while one must keep in mind that the summit itself was intended only for Energy and Environment Ministers. As of now, the Danish are refusing to reveal the entire list of the participants but have mentioned that leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Indonesia and Brazil (newly elected host for the 2016 games in Rio) are planning to take a part in the conference.
Representatives from 191 countries worldwide will try to thrash out a global deal on climate change, which will lead countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the main issue causing the earth’s climate change according to scientists. As mentioned above, the officials will try to agree on a new climate treaty as a successor to the Kyoto protocol of 1997, the first phase of which expires in 2012.
However, it seems that the differences and disputes between the different sides in general and between the Western countries and the developing countries in particular, are too big to overcome in order to achieve an understanding. While the developed European countries have agreed to reduce emissions, the US is refusing as long as financially growing developing countries like China, India and Brazil don’t do the same. On the opposite, these countries claim that any limitation on them will pervade them from saving millions of people from dire poverty. Moreover they claim that anyway most of the industrial production is made on their ground, while it is intended to be sold to the rich countries, where the quality of life is much better.
Another profound disagreement is on the money the Western countries will give to the poor countries, so that they could wage, assimilate and start taking advantage of technologies which are more environmentally friendly. Therefore, the organizers of the conference are seeking a suitable compromise which all sides will agree on, meaning that the deal will probably be more of a political understanding than a legal agreement- that will force to reduce pollution- a one that is very much needed.
The amount of emissions to reduce, the coming up schedules and goals for each country and many other specifics will be decided in the first months of 2010. Right now, all there is to do is wait, but one must look on the bright side- Obama’s participation means that all the spotlights will be aimed at Copenhagen and finally the environment might get the attention it really needs.
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