We haven’t reached the end yet

Copenhagen ends with a loose agreement, but the civil society won’t let that go

The photography exhibition by Helena Christensen about the effects of climate changes in Peru draws the attention to the fact that poor countries will be more affected. The pictures were shown in downtown Copenhagen, as part of a cultural schedule parallel to Cop-15.

At one o’clock in the morning between 18 and 19 of December, at the Bella Center exit, protesters were still demonstrating. It wasn’t a crowd, but there were dozens of people resisting to a cold weather of -5 degrees Celsius, and to the contact of their feet to melted snow (which many times gets into the shoes), to claim: “Climate shame, go back and sign” to presidents and prime ministers – most of them not even there anymore. After a long meeting between the USA and Basic countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China), which resulted on the Copenhagen Agreement, President Lula left the country taking with him two people in charge of the Brazilian negotiations, Minister Dilma Roussef and Ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo. Obama has left as well.

Which made the activists go to the doors of the Convention Center in the beginning of that morning was the information that leaked through the Internet declaring Copenhagen a failure. The intention to firm a fair agreement and with the legal enforcement to save the world has been, at least, postponed. The presidents took the plane out of Denmark after eliminating from the text the compulsory goals to reduce greenhouse effect gas emissions, for developed countries, as for developing countries. That broke what was meant to be the core of an agreement with effective results. Until the beginning of that morning, there was a sentence including a global goal of 80% to reduce pollutants until 2050 – but that was also deleted. One of the few questions creating some consensus was the increment of global warming, which cannot pass the 2 degrees Celsius, according to the text – the attempts, especially from island countries to decrease this number to 1.5 degrees, didn’t pass. The Copenhagen Agreement also talks about financing: 10 billion a year until 2012, reaching up to 100 billion in 2020 – a step forward, but there are details regarding the source of the money. It also presents the use of mechanisms as Redd+, to finance the maintenance and preservation of forests, which was one of Brazil’s interests.

The fact that the final text was decided in a meeting between the USA and Basic didn’t please many nations. Tuvalu, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Sudan were some of those holding their ground against the final text. As in order to be validated the agreement needs to be approved by everyone, the use of a legal mechanism was necessary, the so called “note taking”, which makes an agreement have enough value to work out, without being compulsory.

Those debates took place in the early morning, when a committee of around 30 world representatives was formed to finish the text left by the presidents. The Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, has spoken on behalf of Brazil. During a break, he appeared at the Bella Center Main Hall, where he got surrounded by journalists. Basically what most of them said was that the agreement in finalization inside the room was not sufficient and the United States were creating most of the obstacles.

The general climate was one of frustration. After all, there were people there who worked intensively for two years (since Cop-13, in Bali when the development of a climate agreement for Copenhagen was set) and, even more intensively, on these last two weeks. Through the hallways, one could hear sentences such as “now I have to find something else to do with my life”, “Lula said an Angel would pass by here – only if it was the Angel of Death” or “I don’t want to make part of an endangered species.

But there were reflections, too. The excitement around Cop-15 has also made many nations – including Brazil, China, India and the United States – to release their voluntary goals to reduce emissions prior to the meeting. During the conference, the European Union has also increased their pre-released goals from 20% to 30% to reduce greenhouse effect gas emissions until 2020, in relation to 1990 levels. All these promises may evolve into a meeting intended for the middle of 2010 in Bonn, Germany. And, who knows, maybe they will become goals with legal enforcement in Cop-16, scheduled for December of next year in Mexico City. Representatives of global campaigns already warn that the pressure from society will continue (click here to join the undersigned “Not Done Yet”, from Tck Tck Tck). At least, in the next Cop, activists will be able to wear bikinis.