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.

Lula came out well, Obama cramps his style

Today around lunch time, in front of the new NGOs’ HQ, which were, most of them, forbidden to go into the Bella Center (where the last day of Cop-15 runs), there was a protest in response to most of the speeches by the Heads of Sate in these last two days of conference. The President of the United States, Barack Obama, arrived today in the morning, and his speech didn’t please at all. Basically he said the USA will not waver its very modest goal (4% in relation to 1990 levels, as the European Union offers 30%, and the IPCC recommends 40%) to reduce the greenhouse effect gases. Meanwhile, President Lula has only gained popularity, as he promised wonders on his morning speech (after his not-so-exciting speech of yesterday) – literally, because he spoke about Brazil’s participation on the financing for adaptation and climatic change. Watch the video of this spirituous protest, whose motto was “Climate Shame” – with the rights for cheers to Brazil from a sympathetic Canadian lady, who says to be ashamed of her country. Right before that manifestation, inside the HQ, the Colossal Fossil Awards took place – final version of the Fossil of the Day Awards, which happens daily at Cops to “congratulate” the countries that most disturbed the negotiations of the day. The colossal version counts for the year. And the winner is… Canada!

The people’s real representatives

Brazilian girl in charge of following the negotiators and telling what is happening says that Cop-15 isn’t being transparent. The “followers” of India, China and the United States talk about the position of their countries and what the civil society thinks.

Juliana is 24 years old. And she’s on a very special mission in this Cop-15: to tell (almost) everything happening on the Brazilian negotiations here at the Bella Center to regular people, the non-experts on the subject, but who are (and must be) watching over what our representatives are deciding for us. Juliana believes that every citizen in this world has the right to know what their world leaders (ultimately, people like us) are negotiating on our behalf and how they are doing that. “By sharing this kind of information, we can increase the pressure for a fair, ambitious and bounding agreement in Copenhagen”, she wrote.

Graduated in International Relations, Juliana Russar is one of the 13 trackers from the international project “Track a Negotiator”, an initiative created by the international campaign Tck Tck Tck (in Brazil, Tic tac Tic Tac) Tck Tck Tck to make the processes in Copenhagen more transparent to the public. Juliana has been following the climate negotiations since 2007 – and she became a tracker in August this year, soon after the project was created. She has also been at the two last Cops, and has followed the preparatory meetings for Cop-15, which happened throughout the year in places like Bangkok, in Thailand, and Barcelona, in Spain. In a chat yesterday evening, where she had been waiting for more than seven hours for the beginning of a meeting, Juliana tells how things are going and explains why Cop-15 has been less transparent than the others.

Further the trackers from three key countries in Cop-15 (India, China and the United States) talk about what they think about the position of their countries at the conference, and what the civil society from their nations says.

CNN + YouTube: the people ask, the experts answer

The make-up artist is “taking the shine off” of Bjorn Lomborg, but that doesn’t overshadow his skepticism. On the background, the one wearing the suit with a yellow tie is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Climate, Yvo de Boher. They both took part in the debate promoted by CNN and YouTube.

Yesterday here at Cop-15 a debate promoted by CNN and YouTube took place, a result of the project Raise Your Voice, which may be one of the most significant in terms of stimulating regular people to participate in this conference that is meant to decide, at last resort, about everybody’s lives. During the last few months, people from all around the world have been invited to send their questions – written or in video – to specialists on climate changes. The questions would be answered live in a debate, which took place yesterday right after lunch, with live broadcasting by YouTube and, as of today, also broadcasted by CNN. The questions should be sent in English, but a lot of the more than 13 thousand videos posted (and viewed altogether more than 7 million times) have come with subtitles and audio in other languages – in more than 15 different languages. People could vote on their favorite questions. Amongst the most popular were chosen those effectively directed to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ivo de Boher, to the New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman, to Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book Cool It and known as the king of skeptics for being part of the group criticizing the run against global warming, and to Darryl Hannah, symbol of activist-artists in the USA – to make the event more popular. Directly from Geneva, the ex-general-secretary of UN Kofi Annan took part via TV.

It is worth watching the debate. As it was a TV program recording (also with breaks to for make-up retouches), the debaters had limited time for answering– what can be a relief in a conference in which, in certain meetings, whether a sentence that should go or not on an article is discussed for over 40 minutes only for, in the end, to erase everything. The debate gets heated in some moments, especially between the New York Times columnist and the skeptic – who just wanted to disagree. Pay attention also to the Yvo de Boher’s elegance, who never interrupts anyone, but when called, talks little but says a lot. Pure diplomacy. He gets to speak many times when the host notices that, quietly on his chair, Yvo swings his head as if disagreeing with what is being spoken. Besides going on air today on CNN, the promise is that the show will also be available today on Cop-15’s channel on YouTube. There you will also find all the video-questions submitted, also divided into categories like “most viewed” and “most well quoted”. And right here on this blog, you can watch a short interview with Benjamin Kott, from Google, about this project. Benjamin highlights the importance of the participation by those not inside the Bella Center during Cop-15.

Cop-15 overview

Third day at Cop-15, it is enough to understand a little of its dynamics. Since yesterday, the entrance for representatives of NGOs has been restricted. After all, around 35 thousand people have registered yet there is room for only 15. At the manifestation that gathered 100 thousand people in the streets of Copenhagen last Saturday, 800 protesters were arrested – and it is said that 200 other people were deported. Since yesterday the Bella Center Metro Station has been closed a few times due to over the limit restrictions. In order to get here it is required to get off at the previous station and walk (when a colleague arrived at that station, the police was throwing tear gas on activists). What’s talked about on the hallways is that the waiting time on the line out there was between 5 and 8 hours – regardless of the people’s country of origin or age. Today I met Carlos Nobre, an INPE (National Institute on Space Researches) scientist and one of the Brazilian members in the IPCC. He said that he tried to get in Bella Center since Monday, and couldn’t because he got there late. Yesterday, after two hours on the line, he gave up. Today, then, it is his first day in here.

A day different from the others. Right away, it is possible to see that things got serious. Small groups of journalists, cameras and microphones on hands surround the authorities. More people wearing suits and ties and less wearing T-shirts saying things like “There is no Planet B”. Yes, the so called high-level meetings have started. I tried to enter in a room but they informed me that yesterday the delegations got a second identification badge to give to the few people authorized to go into those plenary sessions. The names Hugo Cháves and Evo Morales are on the schedule today. Yesterday, there was Prince Charles. And there must have been many more out there, who knows, at bay on the side. The way for most people to follow the discussions has actually come to be the TVs around the Bella Center, with live broadcast of what is being said indoors.

The Brazilian Chief of Staff, Dilma Roussef, and Ambassador Figueiredo (who was in charge of the Brazilian negotiations until Roussef arrived) in a press conference yesterday. Every day at 6:30 pm Brazil gives this press conference, in which not only the press, but also the entire Brazilian delegation can go in.

In short: the schedule opened to almost everyone got reduced. OK, let’s be fair: the side events still are there. But who wants to know about hyper-local projects as world leaders are deciding the future of humankind within the distance of a wall? Yesterday the side events were really exciting. There was in the same room, sharing the same time and table, the Governor of São Paulo José Serra and the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I couldn’t get one of the tickets that had been delivered hours before. But I went to a debate promoted by CNN and YouTube with names like Yvo de Boer, executive-secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Changes and Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book Cool it and known as the king of skeptics, for being from the group which disagrees with the run against global warming. The former Vice-president of the USA and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore also spoke yesterday. The tickets had also run out (these two events popped up all of a sudden!). Luckily, a colleague got in and filmed the final speech of Gore, in which he talks “from heart to heart”, claiming for the leaders to consider who they are and to decide for the right thing. At the entrance of the Bella Center, a woman was yelling to passers-by showing the badge: “today, don’t be stupid, be smart”. It is what claims everyone who stayed out of the Bella Center. And it is what those staying out of the leaders’ decision rooms also hope for.

Video and picture kindly ceded by Marcelo Borja

How Cop-15 works

The Bella Center, the venue where the event takes place, is a huge exhibition hall, with many rooms and warehouses. Right at the entrance there is a huge room, Hall H, filled with stands of NGOs, universities and environmental projects and more than 200 exhibits. There it is possible to get to know from the Alliance for Rural Eletrification (Are), international association that works towards the access to renewable energy in developing countries, to even Tck Tck Tck, the international campaign for citizens to pressure governments in this Cop-15 (the campaign happened in the last few months, including in Brazil).

Leaving from there and following trough a hallway, we get to the stand where every morning the day schedule is delivered – as well as the drafts, the texts being generated in the negotiations.

As atividades na Cop-15 se dividem entre: plenárias (normalmente uma mesa redonda assistida por várias pessoas, são salas imensas, cheias de cadeiras), as reuniões (essas só são abertas para as delegações – observadores e ONGs não podem entrar), e os side events, ou eventos paralelos. Só de side event durante a Cop são mais de 250! São países apresentando seus projetos e ideias. Activities at Cop-15 are divided into: plenary meetings (usually a round table being watched by many people, in huge rooms filled with chairs), the meetings (these are open only for delegations – observers and NGOs can’t go in), and the side events. There are more than 250 side events alone at Cop, countries showing their projects and ideas.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are also the schedules inside the countries’ rooms – located at the delegations’ sector, after another hall where the plenary meetings and meeting rooms are located. Result: with so many things happening, a lot of schedules overlap and we need to choose. As the place is very big, the moving time from one hall to another can be great (like 15 minutes). Oh, and the schedule may change instantly. Suddenly, some people pass by delivering leaflets for a new event that has just popped up.

Global governance

Unlike many world themes, climate changes won’t bring consequences just for a few. That is a global question breaking down deep-rooted paradigms, as the very idea of national sovereignty. Protected even by the United Nations Convention on Climate (it is on the first page of the document as a condition for all the rest), this concept gives nations the freedom to take care of their own business, as if they were organisms not connected to the other cells, in this case, the other nations. For the Chairman of the Ethos Institute for Business Ethics, Ricardo Young, one of the questions that most surface during Cop-15 is exactly the idea of global governance – the world being only one and the decisions having to be taken considering all nations as a whole. Ricardo believes that national sovereignty is one of the concepts that will change the most in the next 20 years. Follow in this video his analysis on how the fact that countries consider themselves an entity separated from the whole can prevent good measures.

After all, why in heavens Canada has already won six Fossil of the Day awards

A Canadian, son of Portuguese parents and who has lived in Brazil for more than three years (he’s an ecologist with a Masters degree by USP!) explains why, after all, his country doesn’t stop winning the least envied award at Cop – despite being one of the most easy-going moments in the conference. That’s the Fossil of the Day, contest created by Climate Action Network (Can) Climate Action Network (Can), an alliance of world NGOs, showing those countries that disturb the negotiations the most every day. There’s first, second and third places. And Canada has already won all of them. One day, it got to be on all three spots at the same time. Today, for the first time, the USA has won the first trophy – for its goal to reduce only by 4% in relation to 1990 and for not supporting the idea of long-term financing for developing countries. However, once again Canada has risen to the podium, sharing the third place with Saudi Arabia. A member of the A member of the Canadian Youth Delegation, which gathers more than 20 Canadian youth from several fields, Dean Medeiros reveals that the position of most Canadians diverge from that of their government, which is not representing the real desire of its citizens (apparently, that happens around the entire world). He further tells how he and a bunch of youngsters are trying to change this situation. His desire is for Canada to become a leader in the fight against climate changes. For that, even the Little Mermaid applauds.