In December, 2009 Denmark will host the next big global climate meeting - COP 15. The Danish Government recently launched a new website to support the event. The site is already becoming a great 'one stop shop' for climate information - see www.cop15.dk .
So what is a COP?
In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly started work on a climate change convention. Those endeavors led to 154 countries signing the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) at the UN Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Since then, 192 countries including the USA have ratified the convention. Each year, a Conference of the Parties (COP) is held, where the countries which have ratified the convention meet and discuss how the convention’s goals can be implemented in practice. One of the tools, which the parties have agreed upon, is the widely misunderstood and poorly implemented Kyoto Protocol (which has been agreed to by most countries in the world, with the notable exception of the US) which is now up for renegotiation.
The goal of the climate change convention is to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes.
According to the UNFCCC, "this stabilization must occur in such a way as to give ecosystems the opportunity to adapt naturally. This means that food safety must not be compromised, and that the potential to create sustainable social and economic development must not be endangered". These are tough criteria that may not be achievable without a major change in the way the world does business - at the very least I believe that we must start accounting for every ton of carbon emitted and price that appropriately!
Why is COP15 Important?
COPs establish the rules by which all countries should play their part in a coordinated global response to climate change. No one country is responsible for climate change (CC) and no one country can solve the problems of CC. A truly global effort is required, far beyond what we have previously achieved in dealing with issues such as ozone depletion! CC is happening so fast and with such dramatic consequences for us all that we can't afford to delay action - hence the expectation that COP15 will deliver a meaningful post Kyoto global action plan! In my mind, this could be the most important meeting of the millenium.
What can you do?
We'll be highlighting individual and community-level climate change response options during the upcoming ASLC CC literacy training (March 18th) to be led by Deborah Williams. I encourage you to read up on those topics before that training and to stay engaged as COP15 takes shapes.
What might the ASLC do?
Many of you have already heard my various ideas to both reduce our own carbon footprint and help Alaska make the transition to a new arctic climate regime - we are pressing ahead with an expanded set of climate change research and education projects. I believe that our research, conservation, education and rehabilitation work can help inform and support implementation of the work that will be done in Denmark at COP15, but I'd welcome your thoughts on specifics...
Meetings are fine, but I wonder how much additional CO2 is pumped into the air that might not be spewed as all of the participants fly in to Denmark from all parts of the world? How about video meetings? A recent issue of the Futurist magazine has interesting ideas for fuels and such. I have a copy if anyone would like me to make copies of the articles. I like the blog Ian.
ReplyDeleteGood point Brent - raises a question for us all - should we also try to offest out carbon footprint when flying as a standard policy - see for example www.nwa.com?
ReplyDeleteIs that to say we should try to use "green" airlines like NWA as much as possible, or look into other ways to partner with airlines to "buy back" our carbon emissions? Would this be strictly a PR/fundraising initiative, or would it have real impacts to our level of CO2 output?
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