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COPENHAGEN CALLING: Wong snubbed

Giles Parkinson

Published 8:10 AM, 16 Dec 2009


Giles Parkinson is providing on-the-ground coverage of key developments in Copenhagen throughout the Climate Conference. To read all of Giles' news and commentary, go to our Copenhagen Climate Conference page.


The deadline approaches. Rapidly. The Danish hosts of the Copenhagen Climate Conference have called an emergency meeting of 25 environment ministers this evening as they rush to resolve the massive gulf in opinions and try to present an outline of an agreement that can be presented to more than 120 world leaders when they arrive, more or less en masse, on Thursday.

The talk’s president, Connie Hedegaard, said time was running out for a robust and environmentally sound agreement, and not nearly enough work had been done in preparation for the arrival of world leaders. “The key word for the next two days must be compromise,” she said. “We must change gears.”

The principal blockage in these talks comes over the architecture of an agreement and whether it should be a single overarching one – either an extension of the Kyoto Protocol or a new treaty (unlikely) – or a combination of two agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, that can be converged over time (most likely).

The talks tonight will focus on that architecture, as well as other sticking issues such as financing for less developed countries, mitigation targets and the process of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).

Australia has been thrust into a central role in solving these issues, with, as we reported yesterday, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong invited to address the mitigation and MRV issues with her Indian counterpart. But in a snub that typifies the current state of these negotiations, India’s Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, refused to take part, telling Fairfax newspapers this morning that he “was too busy” and accused Australia of being the “Ayotallah of the single track” process, a claim the Australian delegation resents. No other developing country would step up to be Wong’s dancing partner, and the talks on developing country mitigation targets and MRV were relegated to the level of officials.

Hedegaard has been frustrated by the lack of progress among ministers these past few days, and particularly the spoiling tactics of Sudan, the leader of the G77 group, and a group of OPEC countries. They, in turn, have pointed to what they call the intransigence of the US, Japan, the EU and Australia. None of this has been unexpected, but beneath the political posturing is a question of equity between the desires of the developed and developing worlds, and the huge differences that lie within those two blocks.

So while the final talks between the US and China will seal the success or otherwise of these talks, the next 36 hours will be crucial in laying the groundwork for an agreement. Expect it to get worse before it gets better. Then, perhaps the US and China can find a way that delivers a binding and robust agreement and still play to their domestic constituencies that they have gained concessions from the other. For the US, this will be to get China to agree to international verification, for the Chinese it will be extracting higher mitigation targets.

Rudd joins the party

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his entourage flew into Copenhagen this evening and held an almost immediate press conference at the fancy Radisson Blu Scandinavia, just a 15 minute drive by electric car from the Bella Centre, and one of numerous Radissons that will host bilateral and other meetings over the next few days.

Rudd’s arrival, along with that of the UK’s Gordon Brown tonight and China’s Wen Jibao tomorrow (a day early), and a further 120 over the following 24 hours, heralds yet another phase of these tortuous negotiations. Perversely, it also marks a change of rhetoric towards domestic audiences rather than international ones.

For the first time, the talk moved to domestic jobs and the protection of industries. Rudd says he will do whatever is in Australia’s interest, and the world’s, of course, but if everyone takes the same approach it is hard to imagine where the compromise that Hedegaard is demanding will come from.

How Rudd and the other world leaders manage to reverse the bracket creep that has plagued the texts circulating in the Bella Centre over the last few days is going to be interesting to watch. For now, he doesn’t sound overly optimistic: it was all about “trying” to reach agreement. “There’s no guarantee of success,” he repeated. Often. See you all in Mexico!


Still locked out
 
The Crowne Plaza Hotel that adjoins the Bella Centre turned into a sort of 5-star refugee centre for BiNGOs on Tuesday, as business types had their access severely reduced by the crackdown on numbers at the main convention.
 
At least that made for full houses in the symposium being conducted by the International Energy Trading Association, and the end to the interminable queues to get into the Bella Centre building, at the security checks, cafes, kiosks, and restaurants and, more importantly, the toilets, as the organic food and drinks took their inevitable toll on the constitutions of the delegates.
 
But the business types were not impressed. Only one of the 28 people in a delegation organised by the Models of Success & Sustainability managed to get a card to the Bella Centre today. John Buttle, the head of an energy trading firm, flew from Sydney over the weekend and had not yet gained entry to the main conference.
 
Both he and David Leary, a climate law expert from UNSW, spent six hours in the queues yesterday among, as one BiNGO described it “a sh**load of lemmings” before giving up as the snow set in. Leary is hopeful of picking up a spare card on Wednesday as other delegates in his party return home.
 
More to the point, the farce over numbers and the manner of accreditation has led some business people to question whether the UN has the resources to manage this proposed transition to a green global economy.
 
“Business wants to be engaged in the solutions, but they need to know it will be well run,” said Professor Ray Wills, the head of the WA Sustainable Energy Association. “If the UN cannot organise a conference, then what are we doing?” This was a common refrain among the refugees at the Crowne.


Mexican trade-off
 
But for those who have spent much time inside the centre, the rewards have been immense. Barrie Harrop, the executive director of Windesal, a company using Danish technology to desalinate water with renewable energy, says that in the past few days he has had meetings with US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, two meetings with Dr John Holdren, a science and technology advisor to President Obama, the US Conference of Mayors and representatives from the US Department of State. “This sort of access is unbelievable, it would cost you millions in lobbyists in the US to talk to these people.”
 
Nic Frances, the CEO of Cool nrg, today showcased the world’s first “programmatic CDM” project to install energy efficient lightbulbs in Mexico with that country’s Environment Minister, Juan Rafael Elvira. The program, which essentially allows small scale CDM projets to be built up at scale, is unique in the world and Frances says he has been courted by the Dutch government and African nations, desperate to introduce similar projects in their countries. Cool nrg’s initital Mexican project will save $365 million a year over 10 years in direct energy costs for consumers and government subsidies, and generate 7 million carbon credits to be sold by the company. “Amid the schmozzle of COP 15 there is a smorgasboard or opportunities … and a desperate need for a real outcome,” said Frances.
 

New-energy Nirvana
 
To any leading renewable energy company, Denmark must appear to be a sort of Nirvana with wind turbines as far as the eye can see, a government mandate to increase the share of energy to 50 per cent, and endless seminars on the path to clean energy. AGL, Australia’s largest private-owned renewable energy group has sent its head of carbon and sustainability Tim Nelson to a COP meeting for the first time and his take on the proceedings is that it simply underlines the need for policy and price certainty, or least predictability, to unlock the flow of investment.
 
Nelson has been writing a daily blog for the company’s commercial clients: The key message? Whether corporates are looking to invest in co-generation projects, low-carbon lighting and cooling or other energy efficiency projects, now is the time to start planning if those opportunities are to be best managed.
 
Geoff Sinclair, a London-based expat who heads the carbon trading business for Standard Bank, says Australians visiting the climate conference seem surprised at how much is going on in the clean-tech/green business sectors. He says it is good that Australia is sending a large official delegation and non-official delegation. He notes Brazil has sent 700 delegates, and Nigeria has sent 300.  “The world is moving on, and Australia needs to catch up.”
 
This was echoed by Professor Wills, who took a trip out to the offshore wind farms that lie near Copenhagen, accompanied by senior executives from the four largest Chinese energy companies. Their key message? There will be a lot less investment in coal-fired utilities in the future, and a massive switch in funding towards cleantech and renewables.
 

Funding forests
 
One of the key topics of this conference has been on the level of public funding and market mechanisms that could be used to preserve the world’s rainforests. In some places, the issue is quite critical. Nigeria, for instance, has already lost 90 per cent of its forests to petroleum, illegal logging and the like, and is losing the rest at a rate of more than 2 per cent a year – one of the fastest rates in the world.
 
Liyel Imoke, the governor of Cross River State, described today how his state has banned illegal logging for two years and payed fully armed police and soldiers to protect the forest. But it could not continue for long. “We are under so much pressure to overturn the ban," he said. “We are ready to protect the forest but cannot do it alone."
 
He said early action was needed to attract public finance, which could hopefully be followed by private finance under the REDD mechanism. This goes to the heart of the some of the key issues facing the Copenhagen talks. REDD has been one of the easier negotiating points at Copenhagen, although negotiations continued until 3am this morning as countries sought agreement on funding and verification.

 
On your bike
 
Environmental NGOs have also been devastated by the lack of access into the Bella Centre, a situation that will worsen in coming days as numbers are further cut, with only 90 of the 22,000 gaining access to the centre on the crucial final day.
 
Amanda McKenzie, who lead the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, says she is appalled by the moves and typified the general level of concerns, saying there would be no representation from civil society when the big decisions are being made.
 
Meanwhile, the militant among the environmental groups are preparing for two days of action, a situation anticipated by the police and military, with a notable step up in security measures.
 
One document circulating today purported to be from the UK-based collective The Labororatory of Insurrectionary Imagination, which is organising tomorrow Operation Bike Bloc, a means of pedal powered civil disobedience.  
 
As they explain, it will “merge a device of mass transportation, a pedal-powered tool of direct action, postcapitalist bike gang and swarm of rebel bees.” Apparently the intricate plans have been rehearsed for days. The Danish police raided them this afternoon.

 
Fossil of the Day
 
The fossils have resumed courtesy of the environmental NGOs. It is helpful to know where exactly the sticking points are:

1st Prize: USA – for being the only industrialised country to block ‘bunker finance’, the mechanism to tax shipping and aviation to help pay for developing country mitigation. Some influential lobbyists must have kept their admission cards.
2nd prize: Canada- for revealing that its emissions will rise 37 per cent by 2020, instead of a 3 per cent cut promised in Kyoto, mostly due to tar sands.
3rd prize: US and Colombia - for reversing progress on the REDD treaty and expanding its text from 3 pages to 7 pages.
 
 
Angry Mermaid
 
A new award was announced today, the Angry Mermaid Award, given to the corporates deemed by a poll organised by a group of environmental NGOs and Naomi Klein to have done the most to sabotage action on climate change.
 
1st Prize: Monsanto – for promoting its GM crops as a solution to climate change and for its crops to be used as biofuels. The company wants soy crops to be funded under a UN carbon credit mechanism.
 
2nd prize and 3rd prize went to Shell and the American Petroleum Institute respectively for their lobbying efforts.

Giles Parkinson can be contacted during the conference at: gpfreelance@optusnet.com.au


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2 Comments


Gus Herstik wrote:

For the love of it. These politicians can't think of an easy solution, but it could be very simple. (See COPENHAGEN CALLING: Wong snubbed, December 16)

China and India can produce goods at prices that no western (developed) country can compete with. I agree that some small nations may need some assistance, but it has to be selective.

A solution: all developing countries could add 1-2 per cent on everything they export and 0.5-1 per cent for domestic consumption – and this profit could then used for carbon reducing development. They would have to allocate moneys to developers and companies with proven records of developing green energy and carbon reducing products.

16 Dec 2009 12:29 PM

Simon Morgan wrote:

I find Copenhagen depressing with all states wishing to promote their own self-interest at the expense of others. Developing countries want some justification that the developed nations should do all the heavy lifting. However, this is like wishing you had not invested in a declining asset, the past being irrelevant. (See Wong snubbed, December 16).

The developed nations do not want to lose their standard of living, security and the prospect of being pillaged by the rising industrial powers. It stumps me that countries with nuclear weapons, manned/deep space technologies and high end computer telecommunications technologies can still claim not to be 'developed' in terms of carbon emissions.

The solution I consider is the application in any agreement is a 'Product Carbon Equalization Payment' (PCEB) that is applied by the country receiving the product.

The rates and its application should be modelled to support the best practical reduction target and secondly address equity issues.

If the USA, China, EU and the BRIC countries can agree to this, all others would have no choice but to comply or go broke.

Clearly we need a target and methods that will be successful in saving humanity from its greatest danger since the Black Death.

16 Dec 2009 3:34 PM



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