4 - The Summit's Real Meaning

The real meaning of the summit

We’ve reached the halfway point of the negotiations. It’s been a long week, and its been marked by many twists and turns.

At times, the Bella Centre in Copenhagen has felt more like the set of a political drama than climate change negotiations. The leaked negotiating texts and spontaneous? demonstrations witnessed at the beginning of the week have been replaced by whispers in corridors as negotiations shifted behind closed doors following the suspension of the negotiations on Wednesday.

The greatest commodity among campaigners and lobbyists is information – who said what? Who blocked who? Who's going to be brave enough to take action?

But today, one man brought home the reality of why we are all here. In a rare open plenary, the lead negotiator of Tuvalu broke down in tears as he warned negotiators that “the future of my country rests in your hands”. Most of Tuvalu’s population lives at less than two meters below sea level and are already feeling the effects of climate change. For Tuvalu and many other vulnerable communities this conference isn’t about percentages and numbers – its about survival.

In order to protect these communities we need to get a fair, ambitious and binding deal in Copenhagen. In short, this means committing to strong emissions reductions, and providing long term financial support to help poor countries respond to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Progress on these key issues has been painfully slow this week. The main blockage has been caused by a lack of ambition among rich nations. Developed countries must reduce their emissions by at least 40% by 2020. As it stands industrialised countries' commitments add up to just 11-17%. So far, so? disappointing. But loopholes embedded within these targets could mean real ?emissions reductions of a pitiful 2-4%.

The EU had the chance to raise ambition on Friday at the EU Summit, but it too, failed to step up to the mark. It failed to up its 2020 target from 20% to 30% as many of us had hoped, and failed to put enough money on the table to support developing countries combat climate change in the short term.

To make things worse, some rich countries, led by Russia and Japan, are trying to jump ship from Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding framework in existence for reducing greenhouse emissions. All in all, industrialised countries are shirking their historical responsibility to act on climate change. Unless they up their ambition, we will not get the fair, ambitious and binding deal needed to ensure the survival of vulnerable countries across the world.

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