Post COP15 – Now What?
Monday, December 21st, 2009Filed under: News, Activism, Climate Change
The two week long carnival in Copenhagen, which featured dramatic politics and inventive activism, mixed in with a genuine desire to address climate change, wrapped up hours past the planned deadline, with a whimper that disappointed many.
Even before COP15 started, it was clear that a binding international agreement was a long shot. The first week was marred by disagreements over process and responsibilities -- particularly over who was going to foot the inevitable bill -- and the split between developed and developing countries got worse as week two progressed.
In the end, the US, China, India and Brazil announced a non-binding statement of intent, and almost all of the countries participating in COP15 indicated that they would "take note" of the so-called Copenhagen Accord.
It's a good news/bad news result -- good that something was agreed upon after two weeks of debate, but bad that it's non-binding, and even more bad that it falls short (far short) of requiring nations to take action that will meaningfully address climate change.
I'm left unsure about what to think about it. Was it the giant failure that strict environmentalists are moaning about? Or is the agreement that came out of Copenhagen the first step on a journey of a thousand steps, small but necessary to get us started?
It's the job of environmentalists to keep the pressure on politicians, and all of us. So I'm glad that they're continuing to push for bigger, better action to save the planet. However, I most appreciated reading Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope's more measured reaction on the Huffington Post.
Pope acknowledged that the conference was difficult, the process disappointing, and the result less than what many hoped to achieve. But he also explained some of the important progress that was made. For instance, China and India agreed to an international plan, putting to rest "the core argument that has held back Congressional action on U.S. clean-energy legislation."
This will make it easier (well, perhaps just a bit less difficult, but we'll take what we can get) for Obama to get meaningful climate bills passed. The inability of the U.S. to show this leadership has been a major stumbling block for a global agreement.
Another positive note that Pope sounded was the fact that many countries, like South Africa, India and Indonesia made "historic reversals" by agreeing that changes have to be made at all!
Reading that, I was struck by what I think we'll one day see as the success of Copenhagen, the shift from asking, "Should we do something?" to "What are we going to do?" That feels like an international turning point, one that had to be crossed before major change could occur.
As much as everyone loves a happy ending, we're going to be addressing climate change for the next several decades. Yes, urgent action is needed, but nothing will fix this overnight. So stay tuned for more bits of progress in Bonn, Germany, and then in Mexico at the end in 2010, and start hoping that the sum of these small steps are greater than their parts.
Post COP15 - Now What? originally appeared on Green Daily on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:11:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.