GET IT DONE NOW: CLIMATE CHIEF

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Copenhagen   |  Tue, 12/08/2009 11:17 AM  |  Headlines

An historic climate change conference opened Monday with strong calls for negotiators to break deadlocks in paving the way for world leaders to seal a climate deal for the planet’s sake.
“That means we must get it done now,” Connie Hedegaard, president of the conference, and Denmark’s former climate minister, warned delegates from all over the world.
“This is the time to deliver. And yes, there are still many obstacles but it is up to us to overcome them. It is do-able.”
Her statement came amid highs and lows over expected outcomes of the conference to be held until Dec. 18, which would likely end with a politically binding agreement rather than a new treaty to substitute the Kyoto Protocol as its first emissions cut commitment expired in 2012.
The event is the climax of two years of negotiations since the last UN climate talks in Bali.
Hedegaard said the political will would never be stronger than now to ensure successful outcomes.
“This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we got a new and better one. If ever.”
The talks opened with video clips of children from around the globe urging delegates to help them grow up in a world without catastrophic warming.
Senior officials from 192 countries started a six-day negotiation before a two-day ministerial meeting next week.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said 110 heads of state and government had announced their visits to Copenhagen to participate in the concluding days of the conference.
“Their presence reflects an unprecedented mobilization of political determination to combat the climate change. An opportunity the world cannot afford to miss.
“Your leaders do not come just to talk. They come to act. And they come — not to agree to just anything — but to agree to an effective deal.
“The deal that we invite leaders to sign up on will be one that affects all aspects of society, just as the changing climate does.”
Executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Conference Yvo de Boer said “the time for formal statements is over”.
“The time for restating well-known positions is past,” de Boer said.
“Copenhagen will only be a success if it delivers significant and immediate action.”
The Bali climate talks in 2007 had mandated Copenhagen to reach a new treaty including a long-term target of emissions.
However, after two years of discussions, little progress has been made since rich nations were still reluctant to announce their emission cut targets along with financial support for vulnerable countries.
A study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said rich nations needed to cut emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels to prevent warmer global temperature.
The US, which so far has refused to join Kyoto Protocol for five percent emission cuts, would only aim to cut by 17 percent emissions by 2020 compared to 2005.
Such a figure is equal only with 2 percent to 7 percent below its 1990 levels.
Aside from emissions cut target, climate financing is still a contentious issue as developing countries wanted rich nations to give predictable financial aid to help vulnerable countries deal with climate change.
The UN says at least US$10 billion a year in new funds was needed to help the poor cope with climate change.
Outside and inside the conference venues, activists staged rallies demanding that the negotiators reach a binding climate treaty.
Activist Mohamad Shinaz of the Maldives plunged into a tank of frigid water to show what rising sea levels were doing to small nations like his.