It is Thursday night and I am working in my hotel room because most NGO’s, civil society and Indigenous peoples representatives have been refused entry to the Copenhagen climate talks. We have had our rights to access the climate talks withdrawn by the UNFCCC. We have had the ability to influence the final negotiations for the climate deal removed by the UNFCCC. It is almost unbelievable that 45 000 people have come to Copenhagen to be part of this historical meeting and we have been asked to watch the meetings on a tv!
So here is an update, but I apologise if it is a few hours out of date.
So the negotiations over the Kyoto protocol are still very contentious. There is still a strong push to abandon the Kyoto Protocol and it’s legally binding greenhouse gas emission reductions by some countries. Developing countries continue to hold their ground and demand that the Kyoto Protocol agreement continues until 2012 and that the Annex 1 parties who have signed and ratified the protocol must meet their commitments.
The details of the Long-term Cooperative Agreement, or the next global climate deal, are still only in draft form and are not at a stage where they can be given to Ministers to agree to it and turn into a legally binding treaty. The pledged greenhouse gas reduction targets are still well below what is required to secure a safe climate and the least developed countries are still pushing for a 350ppm target and a 45% reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries. These countries are coming under a lot of pressure from developed countries to agree to a global climate deal with 450ppm as a goal, instead of the 350ppm target that is required.
All in all, the hope for a legally binding global climate deal has largely been lost and the expectation is that parties will continue to work over the next few months – or year- to finalise the deal.
One thing is for sure, the global shift to a low-carbon economy has not been put into overdrive at these climate negotiations.
Alot of people are still waiting to hear a good news story for Copenhagen, I believe that the ‘good news’ story from Copenhagen will be the ‘REDD’ deal that was agreed to in Copenhagen. More about that in my next blog.
