Sierra Club in Copenhagen: UN Climate Conference 2009
2009: Dec 8 - Dec 9 - Dec 10 - Dec 11 - Dec 12 - Dec 14 - Dec 15 - Dec 16
December 8, 2009
The climate treaty negotiation, aka "COP15," (fifteenth conference of
the parties to the 1997 Kyoto agreement) is being held in the Bella Center,
a few miles southeast of central Copenhagen. It's a typical mega-conference
center, except that it has a mega-windmill spinning next to it.
Tuesday was the second day of the conference. I arrived midafternoon and
the activists were fully engaged. The Climate Action Network handed out
its "Fossil of the Day" award to Ukraine and Australia. I didn't
pick on the specifics, but the award is given generally for foot-dragging
and Bush-like positions.
EPA head Lisa Jackson and Jonathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation
briefed a room full (800?) of U.S. enviros and youth. The day before EPA
had released its important "endangerment determination" under the Clean Air
Act that CO2 is a pollutant that may harm health (duh?), thus setting the
stage for the establishment of emission limits. Or, possibly, setting an
ambient limit of 350 ppm! (This might be a little hard to get through the
courts given that the problem is global).
She announced that Secretaries Salazar, Locke, Chu and Vilsack were on
their way to give presentations and demonstrate the Administration's
commitment to the process.
The delegation, somewhat chagrined that domestic politics give them limited
room to maneuver, announced that it is pushing the establishment of
mechanisms to ensure "integrity" in emission reduction pledges, e.g.,
systems to make sure that countries do what they say they will and make
sure that it works.
He also announced that 110 heads of state will arrive next week. This
place is going to get very tight. A lot of us NGO-types may have to crowd
– or clear out.
At 8pm Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity sponsored a forum
in which CBD attorney Kassie Siegel presented a paper explaining that Obama
doesn't really neet Senate ratification. Evidently only about 90% of the
treaties signed by presidents since WWII have been ratified; most have been
honored.
Photo: Siegel in background speaking, Club Director Larry Fahn soaking in
every tidbit.
December 9, 2009
Today the negotiations broke down. Tuvalu and other island nations were pissed over reports that the U.S. and several other "industrialized countries" were preparing to scrap the Kyoto Protocol and float another plan that favors the rich. Lots of countries, including China and India, split. This is seen as an easy exit for countries that want to walk away from the KP - Japan, Australia, Canada. It's not when things are going poorly this early.
Meanwhile, 5 House Republican leaders took off for here today to derail the talks. About 100 youth wackos, bless ‘em, will be bird-dogging them.
On my commute I was struck by how few people there are in Denmark – only about 5 million. As a result there just aren't that many people on the streets or cars on the road.
This is Taastrup, the town where I'm staying, at 10 am.
And this is the Metro Platform after I'd waited there for about 8 minutes.
There's no shortage of bikes, however.
Speaking of the metro/rail/bus system, it's amazing. This is from down in the system, looking down a few more floors:
Today EPA Administrator Jackson gave a speech trumpeting the Administration's record on global warming.
Sierra Club student leader Ethan Buckner got in her face, politely.
The Fossil-of-the-Day went to Ukraine for proposing that the baseline for measuring emission reductions be moved from 1990 to 2009, sheesh.
Here's Fred Heutte, our team leader, briefing us and a few others.
December 10, 2009
Toward the end of the day the "ENGOs" (environmental non-govermental
organizations) (don't ask about BINGOs, RINGOs, YOUNGOs, etc.) received our
second briefing from the U.S. delegation head.
The Sierra Club team at the briefing
The negotiations remained in "adjournment" all day Thursday, as the
developing nations continue to have major differences with the developed
countries. Issues include:
- how deep should the "cuts" (emissions reductions) be
- against what baseline are cuts measured
- do the developed countries have a financial debt to the developing
countries (i.e. since we (northern hemisphere countries all profited from
our carbon discharges for the past 60 years shouldn't we compensate the
others for the restrictions we ask them to abide? The Danish President has
floated the figure of $10B; $1T would be more like it)
- what should be the "commitment period" of any new agreement?
- how do we control deforestation – a big part of the problem?
- do we credit dubious technologies like "carbon capture and sequestration?"
I'm told that lots of negotiating is going on behind the scenes; I'm down
way too many levels to have any feel for that. But it feels like we're a
long, long way from an agreement.
Protesters began to appear in greater numbers today.
I ran into this woman in the subway. She's wearing skis on her back for two
weeks, with a sign admonishing to "Save Our Snow." Evidently, as the
winters warm the snow moisture content is rising, thus impairing primo snow
at places like Park City.
I finally made it out onto the streets of Copenhagen. More of those scenes later.
Kudos to the convention center for having waterless urinals everywhere.
(No, I didn't ask these fellows for model releases....)
The Fossil-of-the-Day went to Poland for asserting that the EU's proposed 30% reductions were draconian.
December 11, 2009
Nominally, the Conference of the Parties is still deadlocked over Tuvalu's proposal to "create a new contact group." (diplomatic jargon for moving beyond the current Kyoto Protocol). But today the Chair circulated a draft that was described as fairly comprehensive.
Here are snaps of a couple of draft sections that circulated this morning.
Brazil, a leader of the G77 (developing countries) has expressed tentative overall support for the entire thing. But almost all of the developed countries are likely to have lots of big issues with it. At least now they have something to discuss.
Inside this complex, the overall level of energy and chaos seems to be increasing.
The number of bodies makes it hard to move around.
Protesters went after the developed countries.
They told me that they wanted to target specific countries but were told by the UN that they needed to generalize their message or they'd be kicked out.
Protesters were apparently arrested today out on the streets. The AP is reporting that some 40 protesters have been detained.
This from the Club's Josh Dorner:
"the Danish government rushed through a host of new security laws ahead of the conference, some of which have been criticized by civil society groups. Anyone deemed to be "hindering the police" can be held for 40 days. Others can be arrested and detained for up to 12 hours without formal charges.
UPDATE: AFP reports that Denmark has reinstated border controls to bolster security, an extraordinary move for which is recently permission from the E.U.
The government also spent some $122 million on securing and fortifying the Bella Center, according to the New York Times."
Just wait until we get 110 heads of state next week. Rumor has it that many if not most of us will not be admitted to the convention center.
Today's Fossil-of-the-Day went to Canada for, among other things, claiming that its proposal to reduce emissions by only 3-5% by 2020 was "based on science."
Trigg Talley, from the State Department and the U.S. delegation briefed us off the record.
Among other things, he noted that this issue (GW) is not on the map in the U.S.
no shit.
December 12, 2009
Negotiations overview and protest pix
Time doesn't permit the usual narrative, so I will just post 9 photos from today's march and protest.
400 were arrested, which is not surprising given that there were lots of cherry bombs going off around us.
And people throwing rocks at buildings.
Following that is a summary of the state of play in the negotiations, from Josh Dorner, Sierra Club communications staff.
Tomorrow is a day off - I'm headed for the home of a friend's friend in the woods in Sweden. So I won't be on line tomorrow.
What is going on?
As we all know there are two sets of negotiations going on here in Copenhagen - one
covering the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and one covering long term cooperative
action (LCA) for all countries. This second track is vitally important because it is where any
U.S. and Chinese actions would potentially be contained. There are really three key
struggles going on: 1) whether or not parties can agree to an LCA agreement as well as its
legal nature (will it be legally binding?) 2) whether or not advanced developing countries
like India and China will put actions that reduce their emissions into such a deal
and, 3) whether or not the Kyoto Protocol will be extended.
So where are we?
Parties are in need of a document from which to work in order to negotiate. To keep the negotiations moving the chair of the LCA (those that would include the U.S. and China) has proposed a new abridged text that includes both developed and developing country action. This is a crucial development that serves as a basis for actual negotiations. Nearly all countries have accepted the text as a basis for negotiations - albeit with many substantive critiques.
While this text is not currently as strong as we would like, it provides us in the NGO
community a vehicle to strengthen. Most importantly, the text has left the option for a legally
binding outcome on the table. We are working to make it imperative that this text be turned
into a legally binding agreement either in Copenhagen or through a process that clearly
outlines the finalization of a legally binding agreement alongside an ammended Kyoto
Protocol.
While the Tuvalu proposal for two legally binding outcomes is not currently being
negotiated, all of the media exposure that has accompanied it has clearly demonstrated
the determination of some parties to achieve two legally binding outcomes – one for
the Kyoto Protocol, one for the United States, China, and others.
What's next?
The text is currently a shell that will be filled in by various working groups on specific
areas (adaptation, REDD, etc). Several closed informal negotiations and contact groups
are already busy working on these details. It is crucial that the international NGO
community work with our allies to help strengthen these areas as much as possible as
negotiators must now get the text prepared for ministers who are arriving to help solve
some of the key crunch issues. Ministers will focus on the high level issues starting
as soon as this weekend. They will then make the substantivec decisions to hopefully secure an
agreement. Once this work is done heads of state will arrive and formally endorse the
negotiations. This is of course in an ideal world and negotiations as we have seen can be
a hectic and unpredictable process. For now however, this is where we stand.
December 14, 2009
As I approached the Bella Center after a day in the Swedish countryside (more on that beer-soaked and sauna-cooked adventure in the future, perhaps), it was clear that things had changed.
Entry queues, which had been problematic only during the opening two days, were now stretched out well around the block. Included in these queues were some pretty big wigs, including national delegations and members of Congress. One governmental delegate said he waited in line for four and a quarter hours.
Inside, the crowds were somewhat thicker. It was no longer possible to text-message while walking from one venue to another.
While watching Sec. Chu speak to the DOE agenda on global warming, I was told that the G77 (developing countries) were still expressing their unwillingness to negotiate with the Big Boys unless more emissions-reduction pledges were put on the table. While this was said to be less than a "walkout," it seemed to put a chill on the proceedings. In the plenary session delegates spoke to the entry queue problems, not matters of substance.
At 8pm Sierra Club President Allison Chin was a panelist at an international labor forum
which was held in a labor building next to the river.
As a result of the flood of heads of state expected starting tomorrow, entry passes for NGOs have been reduced in number from 20,000 to 7,000. I'm lucky enough to have obtained one of the 7,000. On Wednesday the number will drop to 1,000, and on Thursday to 90! So much for transparency....
I expect that on Wednesday, my last full day in Copenhagen, I'll be reporting from other venues.
December 15, 2009
It's getting weird for NGO delegates, as most of us are being excluded from the conference, allegedly to make way for arriving heads of state. In addition, those of us who made it in have often been unable to attend events, from Schwarzenegger's speech to a supposedly "open" meeting of the LCA working group. (Long-term Cooperative Action).
Based on double (or worse) hearsay, it appears that the negotiations are bogging down on many fronts. When I attended the meeting of the Adaptation Working Group the delegates were doing little but discuss the process.
It's been reported that the Africans stopped the discussions in the plenary session this morning for lack of meaningful offers from the developed countries.
Today the "Fossil of the Day" went to the U.S. for (1) needlessly complicating the REDD (forest conservation) negotiation and (2) singlehandedly blocking all progress on control of air and ship carbon releases ("bunkers" as they burn "bunker fuel"). Obama's people say that they can't get ahead of the Senate – at the risk of repeating the Kyoto disaster.
And celebrities started taking podiums.
Al Gore's presentation was another that I couldn't get into.
Momentarily I'll leave the conference center for the last time.
December 16, 2009
Today things started seriously to fall apart. Protestors outside the Bella Center started to annoy the generally testy Danish cops, which led to the shutting down of the metro station stop.
This led to a big protest at the next station; apparently some anarchists saw this as a chance to throw things at the police, and then it got rough. Many were tear-gassed and/or hurt.
Hundreds were arrested.
They evidently earmarked one or more paddy wagons for the Sierra Club delegation....
Evidently as a protest to the 65% reduction in NGO convention center passes, FOE-International held a sitdown protest right inside the facility. This pissed off the UN officials, who announced at mid-day that no more NGO-types would be admitted. That scotched my chances of getting in.
Security is getting so tight (in anticipation of all the heads of state arriving) that many other equally important people can't get in - e.g., the head of the Brazilian delegation.
Council of the Parties Chairman Heedegard resigned at 11 a.m. I'm guessing it was over the parties' lack of flexibility, but this is only a guess. Whatever the reason, she was trusted by the developing countries, so this does not bode well for chances of reaching some kind of agreement. The various drafts of sections of the agreement seem to be in terrible shape, an equally important sign that agreement is unlikely. The best-developed agreement is "REDD" - the forest preservation section – but even it has four different issues that remain unresolved.
Reports suggest that Obama is calling world leaders before he leaves DC, hoping to get at least one thing that they can trumpet as a victory. Hillary arrives tommorow, they say, which is something of a surprise.
Anyway, its hard to be an optimist, but maybe Obama can pull a rabbit out of his hat....
I moved to the cruise ship last night. And woke up to a pretty good snow, but it didn't stick, of course.
It was interesting but spartan.
I waited for Hillary or someone else important to land on the heliport, but no luck.
I leave for DC tomorrow morning and will keep fingers and toes crossed over the Atlantic.
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