First day in Copenhagen

Monday 7 December, Copenhagen 2009

The first day of pinpointing locations and most of all the accreditations. There are loads of people, it's the UNO conference that welcomes the most delegates and observers to the extent that there will be daily quotas for the NGOs and associations to enter within the conference walls.

We attended several conference meetings.

The Plenary of the working group on long-term cooperative action under the Rio Convention about climate change (AWG-LCA).

A huge room cram-packed with official delegations and observers. Confirming what was said at the opening meeting, the G77 plus China, chaired by Sudan, reaffirmed the need of a legally binding agreement, as the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, and a consistent public funding. In this plenary, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), reaffirmed the need for commitment on the behalf of the Annex 1 countries to the level of the issues, they renewed their call for commitment to 45%. They cannot accept a discount agreement and the AOSIS representative confirmed its support to the 77 group. They cannot be satisfied with a political agreement, they insist on a binding legal agreement.

Let us remind ourselves that without an international binding agreement, nothing will oblige the countries who have taken national commitment to respect it. Next followed Algeria that intervened on the behalf of the African countries, expressing their fears of the abandonment on the part of the Kyoto Protocol that force the Annex 1 countries to commit to carbon reductions. The battle against climate change cannot be dissociated from the battle against poverty. They note the lack of progress in negotiating, notably on the part about adaptation to climate change that seems to interest more the people who undergo climate change than the people who are responsible for it. This group expressed its worries concerning the attitude of the developed countries and its fears of the abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol, in its restrictive part and founded on differentiated responsibilities.

The tone changes with Australia that evokes a binding treaty “ as soon as possible”...

Jean-Louis Borloo, present, spoke for the first time, as his speech had been refused during the opening ceremony (it's the conference of the parties and it's the EU party who negotiates !).

After the G77 declarations, the AOSIS, the African countries group, he insists on the necessity to act from today towards the poor, through an ambitious adaptation program with public funding and market mechanisms. However, we know today that the amount that has been put forth for public funding, it is the financing market which is looming and extending. This adaptation funding (and not only that of mitigation, already largely financed by the mechanism of the carbon markets) is an absolute priority according to Borloo. It is clear that the strategy of France is to attempt to break the G77 by isolating the poorest, notably the African countries.

Meeting on carbon markets. The advantages of the new mechanisms of the carbon markets.

This meeting was held in the EU pavilion, the meeting got under way with the United Kingdom. I wasn't able to participate in the whole meeting, but it testified as well its EU penchant. The room was in majority occupied by bankers, the financial world and academics.

In the debate, the NGO's, notably Friends of the Earth (UK) largely expressed themselves.

KLIMAFORUM opening ceremony

A few phrases pronounced by Naomi Klein, after analysing the transformations of the “movement of all movements” from Seattle : the time for naivety is over, what is playing now in the Bella Center (UNO), it's not the battle against the causes of the climate and ecological crisis, it's the management of this crisis, like a new opportunity. It is not only the carbon that is sequestered, it is as well the hope, that has to be re-lived by amplifying the movement.

Translation : Rachelle Knöbl, Coorditrad