Articolo di Federico Guerrieri.
Photo by Marc Kjerland

Welcome to Copenhagen!
The UN Conference on Climate Change has started yesterday (7th of December 2009) in the Danish capital. As we have already underlined in other articles, as the Kyoto protocol will terminate by the end of 2012, this summit will be fundamental in order to find a new agreement on climate change. Tom Burke, funding director of sustainable development company E3G, said “to fail in Copenhagen is to invite chaos in our lives as a permanent guest”.

The chance of finding a new agreement are good, but what today is proposed would not be sufficient to stop the dramatic effects of global warming. The United States proposes a cut of 17% in their emission, considering the 2005 level. It means a 3% cut compared on 1990 level. This is a ridiculous offer from a country which is the major emitter together with China. Yesterday the EPA (America Environment Protection Agency) declared that the greenhouse gases are threatening public health. Even thought the anti-Copenhagen lobby in the US is very powerful, I hope that President Obama will take into consideration the EPA position and will propose deeper cuts in Copenhagen. The problem is that the US does not want to limit its emission unless China does, but developing nations are not required to reduce emission without compensation.

The European Union is the organization more active in trying to fight climate change. However, some disagreements between Eastern and Western European Countries made impossible for the EU to have a coherent policy on the financial aid to developing countries. In fact, Eastern European countries have been firmly against the idea of linking contribution to polluting levels suggesting that the burden sharing be divided according to national income. The EU has already proposed to cut its output of greenhouse gases by 20% on 1990 levels by 2020. Today Gordon Brown pushed the European Leaders to accept a deeper cut (30%) on their emissions. However, the EU will cut by 30% only if other developed Countries will do the same. Several NGOs, such as Oxfam International, are calling the EU to unilaterally cut by 30%. It is suggested that other developed countries will be forced to follow the European example. The EU, in so doing, would reach a leadership role in the international affairs and the global warming would be stopped. Unfortunately, yesterday, President Barroso said "I think there will be no treaty in Copenhagen. Some of our partners are not preparing for it. What we are trying to get is an agreement. Only after it is put under the pertinent law, the agreement will become a treaty". The President should be more positive and pro-active in these fundamental days for the future of humanity.

Developing countries are calling the rich and industrialized countries to give financial and technological aids, in order to help them in achieving cleaner industrialization. It is important that Western developed countries will acknowledge their responsibilities. We must be ready to operate deeper cuts than developing and Third World countries and to assure them financial and technological aids.

Yesterday, the Guardian published a secret Danish proposal. This text proposes that emissions from developed nations should be reduced by 80 percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. It also proposes for an interim reduction target for developed countries by 2020 to be set. The “Danish text” also said that “developing countries, except the least developed which may contribute at their own discretion, commit to nationally appropriate mitigation actions”. Developing countries criticize the proposed division between the least developed and other developing nations.

Another concern is given by the suggestion to transfer more control over the enforcement of the Copenhagen agreement from the UN administration to the World Bank. This fact would shift more control over to the industrialized world. Lumumba Stanislaus Dia ping, chair of the Group of 77, said to a Danish newspaper: “You need to listen to all countries. That’s what democracy is about, and that’s what you have been cheering in Denmark. What your Prime Minister does is contrary to the spirit of the developing aid, which Denmark has provided for Africa through many years”. This Denmark text does not suggest anything similar to the percentage of cuts needed to save the planet. Moreover the Western world must acknowledge its responsibilities for the damage caused to the environment during their own industrialisation.

Richer countries must therefore find a way to assist developing nations in achieving cleaner industrialisation. Even us, common citizens, we must be ready to use less energy and to pay it more. We must be careful in our every day actions. We must take care of the environment. We must be responsible. The 110 Head of States that will try to find an agreement in the final days of the Copenhagen Summit must understand that the cost of cutting greenhouse emissions is far less important than the damage that global warming would cause if we won’t stop it.

The time for lobbies, disagreements and parochial interests is over: it’s time for action and everyone must collaborate.