Can 192 countries come to any agreement on strategies to combat climate change? Even the countries involved in the Group of 20 are having a lot of difficulty coming to some sort of consensus.
Since December 7, Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, has been hosting the long-awaited UN conference on climate change and the city has probably never seen the activity that is abuzz in the streets right now.
It has been reported as the largest conference in UN history where politicians and officials from 192 nations have gathered to resolve the international pollution problem. Can they do it?
As expected, the city has drawn a real share of protestors, among them are environmentalists, human rights activists and representatives from smaller nations that are most likely to suffer if there is an international stalemate. High profile personalities and celebrities have also been drawn to this usually quiet city.
Depending on which report we are inclined to believe, the numbers marching in protest are either 30,000 as reported by the local police or 100,000 reported by the organisers. It is probably some number in between but the international meeting has certainly attracted a large crowd and the conference has sparked a lot of emotion all round.
I find it very hard to believe that our world leaders have not already put on the table what their governments intend to do, if anything.
Some including Australia and Europe are pushing for a stronger international commitment than what has been produced so far, although green groups are far from happy with the stronger strategies to address the crisis.
On the other side of the coin, China, is pushing to continue with the Kyoto Protocol that forces the richer nations to have a much earlier start to controlling emissions so as its own economy and other developing countries can at least catch up with many of those in the west.
Certainly some of the key governments have already expressed a strong reluctance to participate in an agreement that will have a lot of impact on the growth of their economies.
Australian Climage Change Minister, Penny Wong, European negotiators and international green groups have condemned the first official draft proposal released this week as being too weak and did not legally bind the big polluting nations including the U.S., China, India and Brazil to curb greenhouse emissions.
Our own Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is not due to arrive in Copenhagen until this week and US President, Barack Obama, Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will not be arriving in Copenhagen until the final day on Friday.
So far there hasn’t been too much enthusiasm over the draft agreement but the Copenhagen conference has certainly invited a lot of colour to the city. Eighteen giant ships ablaze with climate messages sailed into Copenhagen harbour starting the large protest march to the Conference being held at the Bella Centre.
Reports have also emerged that the local police have been over zealous on their watch. According to the national director of Australia’s online political movement group Get Up, Simon Sheikh, police in full riot gear, moved in on the marchers pushing some into shopfronts and others on to the ground.
According to other reports up to 400 marchers were arrested as what can only be called pre-emptive strikes, having their hands bound and separating them from the march.
As the conference enters its second and final week, protests are bound to become even more colourful. According to recent research, domestically in Australia and in the US at least, the citizens have generally become a little fearful of aggressive action, fearing the costs of an aggressive scheme will be the loss of many jobs and much a higher cost of living.
Perhaps if China holds out and continues to hold firm on removing China and other developing nations from any international agreement, it may just let the US and Australia off the hook.
Sourced: www.smh.com.au; www.guardian.co.uk. Image credit: AP on www.smh.com.au
