Rumors, Chatters and huge Frustrations

Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany

I know that you guys out there are probably waiting for me to blog and give you some more insight on what is happening over here. Well, I honestly do not quite know where to begin. This day is the last official day of negotiations here in Copenhagen, the whole civil society is watching, but locked out of the Bella Center. There have been a couple of nice sounding speeches by heads of states - most of them neither surprising, nor bringing new numbers or targets to the table.

Above all of them: Obama and Merkel. I know about both that they actually do care about their “Climate Reputation” and came here to be the game changers in the last hours of these negotiations. Merkels speech was beautifully framed with good rhetorics, but the numbers she announced were nowhere near of what we expect and need them to be: She still talked about a mere 25% emission reduction targets as a globally needed target for industrialised countries, she did not even mention the issue of additionality (new and additional money) and it became clear once more that those conditional 30% that were put out there somehow by the EU are still conditional and this card has yet to be played. Today, Obama again talked about the US reduction goals of 17% by 2020 - and simply ignored the fact that this is based on the emission in the year 2005, not 1990. It breaks down to a mere 4% target on the basis of 1990 - the baseyear that every other nation uses (except of a few, for e.g. Australia).

I am exhausted and disappointed. This morning, I had another skype streaming with the ARD, the German TV - and told them in complete honesty - how speechless I was: ” If this wasnt a skype call with German TV, I would say nothing at all. ”

However, there is a lot to say and a lot of details and leaders here to be mentioned, blamed and shamed for what we are experiencing. This indeed seems to be a big show, a huge failure - and there are certain people that need to be blamed for it. Just in these minutes, I have heard that Angela Merkel herself is indeed blocking the talks within the EU as she does not want to move to a 30% goal. On the other hand, the UNFCCC has asked negotiators to stay a bit longer - till Sunday at least.

It is exactly as Nicole Wilke had told me before: About 300 people know whats going on - the other 20.000 out here spread rumors. And I am one of them.

Tags: Merkel, Obama