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Copenhagen: ‘Fourteen days to seal history’s judgment on this generation’

Dec 09, 2009 Editorial

On Monday, to coincide with the opening of the world conclave to craft a protocol to deal with climate change, the Guardian newspaper of the UK attempted to issue an editorial that major newspapers across the globe would carry.
Of the 56 newspapers from 45 nations that agreed, sadly, only one from the entire US, the Miami Herald, agreed and this in itself says a lot about the chances of having a signed agreement at the end of the two weeks of meetings. We publish below, excerpts from the editorial.
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The science is complex but the facts are clear.
The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2 °C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3- 4 °C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert.
Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea.
Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism.
Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.
But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree that the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June’s UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline.
As one negotiator put it: “We can go into extra time but we can’t afford a replay.”
Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850.
It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts, which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.
Developing countries can point out that they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit.
But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.
Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions.
The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them.
And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it.
But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it.
We implore them to make the right choice.

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