It is tricky to see how the Copenhagen climate conference can organise the world
to a new future when the United Nations made such a hash of organising the conference.
I came to Copenhagen with Dr Richard Harding, Director Designate of Climate
Research at the Wallingford-based Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. As one of
only a handful of British scientists attending this vital summit, he presented
European Union research on water resources in Africa.
But his diverse audience, including members of the World Bank, African Ministers, and civil rights non-governmental organisations nearly missed out. Richard queued with a couple of thousand other accredited attendees for hours in freezing conditions through Monday14th Dec; there were after all 45,000 delegates and space at the Bella Conference Centre for only 15,000.
After 4 hours with no movement, Richard spotted a dynamic Dutchman haranguing the guards and recognised Pavel Kabat, Head of Climate Research in Holland and one of the other 5 speakers in Richard’s own session. Pavel got them into the centre, this time, but found himself unable to gain admittance the following day. We could only hope that Pavel would get in on the Thursday, to be a part of the three-strong scientific panel in discussion with President Obama; indeed, would the President himself get past the Danish guard?
I
had a much better time of it at the People’s KlimateForum, where I went to gather
tips for Sustainable Wallingford. I made contact with Transition Towns of Totnes,
whose techniques have spread widely. So widely, in fact, that we had already
come across a Transition Towns Leader on the train from Esbjerg: Barbarina from
Vermont was attending on behalf of the largest US evironmental group, the Natural
Resources Defence Council.
But more exciting than the well-organised talks at the People’s Forum was the incredible diversity of people: a true Viking of an Icelander berating the violence of the Danish police who had arrested 900 people on the Saturday march of 100,000, in a ‘precautionary’ action; a French captain and boat-builder, who was switching from servicing rich clients to putting up solar panels; and the inevitable floaty-voiced yoga teacher who was certain that the world would be saved if we all practiced yoga daily.
Al Gore addressed the summit and also gave a presentation at the Danish Film Insitute, followed by a hugely depressing film on the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest for timber, paper and ultimately to grow palm oil, leaving orangutans clinging to single stark denuded trees in a wilderness of palmoil plantations. Seven and a half million hectares have been cleared and planted up, and another 14 million hectares are planned. Indigenous forest peoples have lost their ways of life and hundreds of conflicts have developed.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave a rousing speech on Sunday morning, his purple robes flowing as he danced and giggled, and called for a legally binding agreement on climate change. He was joined on-stage by the chief negotiator for the UN, Yvo De Boer. De Boer has been through the mill – two years ago at the Bali conference he broke down in tears after 72 hours of locked-in negotiations had failed to reach a new agreement.
Two years on and so much more is at stake: we were shown film of individuals from countries already affected by climate change: a young Chinese woman whose town had been destroyed in 20 seconds by a cyclone, a Kenyan farmer suffering from years of drought, a Peruvian whose town was washed away in a mudslide, and a report on the high suicide rate for Australian farmers after 8 years of drought in the Murray-Darling basin. Not to mention the catastrophic floods in Cumbria…
…that was Copenhagen; make or break.
Sue Roberts
