气候变化来自生活点滴
大家可能会误以为要对抗气候变化是以国际法主导，而遗忘了气候变化的成因，也误会了对抗这个问题的方法是遥不可及。联合国气候变化框架公约以及京都议定书，其实是一个国际政府表示认同气候变化需要多边会谈去促进合作，也订明气候变化的历史责任谁属、有必要作出减排及提供援助的责任，还有谁是气候变化的受害者并需要什么援助，订定减排量及时间表等等。这是政府间的协议。

千万不要以为我们要什么生活都不要，要作重大牺牲才能改变气候问题。我们需要的是免除不必要的需求，善用资源，选择多吃蔬菜少吃肉、精明选择合能源效益的电器、善用视像/电话会议去取代到外地公干也是利己、利人、利地球的简单法门 (回想我当日也是透过视像会议参与面试，不用影响我在澳洲的学业，又不用错过气候Tracker 的选拔过程)。

政府也应该积极开拓与市民讨论环保施政，把环保教育普及化，也许会得到比预期多的可取的建议－ 我相信没有一个市民会想看到自己生活的地方承受不住气候变化的影响。平常再多的意见，只是代表各自对环保议题的认识程度及角度不同，而不是单纯的抗争心态。

虽然有关哥本哈根的气候峰会的报导开始回复平静，真正的工作现在才开始。我不同意别人只说哥本哈根是一个失败，这只会让所有讨论在这一阶段终结。正因为这次会议没有达成一个公平、进取及具法律约束力的协议，也可幸的是没有达成一个很糟糕的条约，要我们再多等4-5年才能作更改，下一年度在墨西哥举行的气候大会，届时确实是危急存亡之秋，将会是不容有失的时机。

谈判勇者 – 岛国代表
大家可能会发现我总是引用一位太平洋岛国图瓦鲁代表 Ian Fry 的发言，他成为各国气候 Trackers 的偶像，因为他总能讲出发人深省的话。在闭幕会议上，他说：「我们现在于正在迅速沉没的铁达尼号上，但我们不能放下救生船，因为有一位海员认为我们根本不是在沉船，更认为我们要作非正式会议去决定我们是否在沉船。」既然气候谈判落得如此讽刺的下场，我们作为市民更要肩负促使政府及商界推动环保政策，我们也要落力配合，切实活出低碳生活及发展低碳经济。

At a vigal for survival we had time to reflect on what was happening in Copenhagen

Friday night, half an hour after Obama’s press conference was met with a stunned silence all over Copenhagen, I found myself back at the conference centre.

This time not on the inside, but standing outside at the exit. Standing in minus three degrees, with the snow falling thickly, alongside hundreds of other young climate activists from around the world.

We were there to say no to the people inside. What Obama had just given us was not good enough. In fact it was worse than anything we had ever dared to imagine. Worse than we had come to Copenhagen with just two weeks before.

We were there because we were angry.

We still have some confusion as to what Copenhagen actually delivered, with different people painting it in different ways.

But the way I see it, and the way the other young people who stood with me on Friday night see it, it is simple…

We have nothing.

We have an ‘accord’ (what does that even mean!) which binds no one to do anything. At the very simplest level we have no binding commitments of emission reductions!

We have a situation where a select group of countries bypassed the UN system and betrayed the rest of the world, then held them to ransom.

They held an exclusive meeting where they decided they could not agree on what everyone was asking for, so they would propose something much weaker. Then tell everyone else this is all they would sign up to and if they wanted money they should sign too.

We have seen this deal be painted in many different ways and blame for it thrown anywhere it will stick.

But for young people around the world it is simple, whoever’s to blame.

It is not good enough.

It does not ensure us a future on this planet.

And that’s why we were outside the conference centre on Friday night.

But as I stood there, the whole crowd chanting around me, shouting at the top of their voices, I found myself getting quieter and quieter. I felt disconnected from everything that was going on.

I was numb.

Numb that this could actually have happened.

I was scared.

Scared of what this meant for our world, scared of what it meant for me and the rest of my life.

As I stood there silently my friend turned round and saw me. She grabbed my hand, held it and we stood there together, holding hands. Her shouting at the top of her lungs, me silent.

Holding hands, even in the face of my deepest emotions I had the courage to remain there, the courage to keep fighting.

We did not get what we wanted, what we needed, from Copenhagen. But we maybe we did get something to build on. And I’m not talking about Obama’s accord.

At Copenhagen we saw courage on many levels.

We saw the courage of vulnerable countries like Tuvalu to stand up for themselves and be heard.

We saw the courage of civil society to raise their voices and be counted in the face of many difficulties.

We saw the courage of individuals to keep fighting.

And this courage is so important.

Because coming out of Copenhagen with so little, courage is what we need now. To fight climate change requires more courage than maybe we have ever witnessed before.

The courage to continue even in the face of failure.

The courage to keep fighting even with the hugeness of the task at hand.

The courage to stand up and be counted whoever you are, however powerful you think you are.

The courage to imagine and build a beautiful and amazing future TOGETHER.

The courage to believe that this is still possible.

Copenhagen may be over, but the fight goes on.

It will take courage to win, but with courage we can, and we will.

Por Adriana Charoux

Estar em Copenhague está sendo uma das experiências mais emocionantes da minha vida.

Apesar de toda a injustiça, apesar de toda barganha sacana dos líderes, da recusa dos países desenvolvidos em diminuir suas emissões de carbono, apesar do nível de arrogância e displicência norte-americana, a despeito da demora de decisões que, não sendo tomadas agora, ferrarão ainda mais a vida de quem menos contribuiu para essa encrenca ambiental em que nos metemos; apesar de ter conhecido gente que já perdeu familiares por causa de enchentes, que tiveram que mudar de seus países de origem porque eles simplesmente não existem mais, apesar dos ditos bonitos do Lula por aqui talvez não corresponderem à realidade do nosso amado país, apesar de dias mal dormidos, mal comidos, congelantes e angustiantes pela frustração que me são peculiares em momentos de alto stress e necessidade de velocidade ultrassônica de resposta.

Apesar de tudo isso, continuo acreditando que conseguimos juntos fazer algo muito incrível por aqui e que eu quero seguir fazendo parte disso.

Quero continuar conhecendo gente bacana e lutadora que mudou o rumo da sua própria vida tornando-a aquilo que queria que o mundo fosse, quero continuar sendo honrada e saudada com o grau de solidariedade de gente que me acolhe em sua própria casa tornando-a uma morada pra mim, de gente que me ajuda a pensar, escrever, refazer junto um texto, ceder uma escuta atenta, crítica e amorosa, repetir as mesmas informações que perdi, um bom prato de comida, uma grande porção de colo, um lenço pra enxugar as lágrimas e um abraço silencioso.

Quero, tendo a oportunidade de continuar fazendo algo que me faça sentido, que me faça sentir o sangue correndo nas veias, que me dê vontade de chorar de emoção, que, mesmo ao mostrar o tamanho da minha insignificância, me devolva a coragem de, a cada momento que achar que não tenho nada mais pra fazer, fazer mais alguma coisa.

Quero continuar acendendo velas, participando de fotos áreas nas quais ofereço meu corpo e e tocha acesa que seguro nas mãos para iluminar uma frase que compartilhei da elaboração, mesmo tendo sido em  silêncio.

Quero continuar vindo a encontros nos quais aprendo muito mais do que sinto que tenho para colaborar, quero aprender com jeitos tão diferentes e melhores dos que os que eu tenho feito, descobrir também que nada é em vão e que estar aqui é um presente e um chamado que tenho que acatar porque quero, porque ainda que minhas ações sejam modestas, minha vontade de colaborar é imensa. Ainda que saiba pouco, agora já posso dizer que sei de alguma coisa.

Quero mesmo descobrir, por meio da tentativa e do erro bem próprios da eterna estreia de que o que eu quero mesmo sempre é continuar a continuar.

As I am writing this, I am in Copenhagen watching the talks in overtime. They have been running continuously for the past 48 hours as leaders scramble to produce something of substance.
Before reflecting on this outcome, lets go back to the beginning of the COP-15. During the opening of the conference, Christina Ora, a youth delegate from the Pacific, spoke prophetically to the powers of this world outlining her hopes and fears. She stated:

“I am 17 years old. For my entire life, countries have been negotiating a climate agreement. My future is in front of me. In the year that I was born, amid an atmosphere of hope, the world formed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to solve the climate crisis….
In the Solomon Islands, my homeland, communities on low-lying atolls are already being displaced by rising sea levels. Communities have lived on these atolls for generations. Moving from one province to another in the Solomon Islands is not just like moving house. Your land is your identity. It is part of your culture. It is who you are.
I am scared, and so too are the people from these atolls about what this means for our culture, our communities and our identity.
Because of climate change, I am uncertain about what is to come. How can I feel that my future is safe? How can I be sure that my home village won’t disappear in 10 years’ time? How can I be sure that my community won’t have to find a new home? How can I be sure that I will be able to raise my children in the same place that my mother and father raised me? I am not sure. I am scared and worried.
For my entire life, world leaders have been negotiating a climate agreement. They cannot tell me they need more time. There is no more time. I hope world leaders realise this week that my generation’s future is in the palm of their hands.”

These inspiring and unsettling words set a tone of urgency for the Copenhagen negotiations. They reflected the fears of millions of people living on the front line of the impacts of climate change. Climate change is proceeding at an alarming rate and required urgent action.
Copenhagen did not deliver what was necessary.

Let me take you through some of the key moments which led to this outcome.

In the final two days of the conference heads of state, including our own Kevin Rudd, were set to arrive and the negotiators were supposed to hand down some final suggestions for high level negotiation and agreement. In short, the suggested text in both the treaties seemed almost as contested as it was 2 years ago. There were major disagreements and public arguments.

At the end of what was a very rushed and confusing day President Obama emerged and announced the Copenhagen Accord, a non-legally binding political agreement. Within minutes of this press conference finishing the President was being whisked back to Air Force One to return back to America.

As the dust settled from this announcement and people could look at the substance of it, anger emerged as the accord failed to include any concrete or binding measures for emissions reductions. Some scientists at the talks said it would set the world on a path to 3.5 degrees of warming by 2100, which is dangerous and unpredictable. There was some provision for adaptation and mitigation in the developing world worth 10 billion US$ per annum to 2012 scaling up to 100 billion US$ per annum by 2020. However, where this money will be sourced from is not clear, and may come out of previously committed aid budget increases.

Developing nations that had not taken part in the US-led talks responded to the text with fury, saying 25-nation accord was an affront to the consensus principle that governs these UN talks.

In response to this situation, Michiel Schaeffer of Climate Analytics said: “It’s as though the last two years have not happened.”

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer told journalists, “We should have done better,”

A senior European environmentalist, John Lanchbery called the accord “a carefully managed collapse”

US President, Obama admitted in a rushed press briefing “instead of taking one step forward, we may have taken two steps back”.

This is a political failure.
World leaders were able to rally last year and spend trillions to save banks, but here in Copenhagen they failed to do what was necessary.

Leaders have failed to deliver the agreement they promised, the agreement we need to avoid catastrophic climate change that affects everyone, the agreement we need to help those already facing the risks of climate change.

At best, we are now confronted with a deadly delay that means unnecessary tragedy for millions of families. The impacts will be felt in every country, and will fall particularly hard on poor people in developing countries.

The time is now past urgent. The costs of inaction are mounting day by day, costs measured in lives, not just dollars. The science is clear, and we have the means. All we are missing is the will.

My journey campaigning for strong action on climate change here over the past few weeks, and in Australia over the past few years has had its highs, and perhaps more lows. This certainly qualifies as the lowest of lows. However, in reflection there are many positives we can take away from this.

The event set new precedents.
Copenhagen was the largest international negotiation ever.
Never before has civil society engaged so significantly on an international issue. Never before have members from the Global South and Global North come together so strongly to rally for the same cause.

This movement has mobilised millions of people around the globe to demand justice of our national and international leaders for the sake of the poor. It has highlighted the great inequality of our world, and cultivated passion for change.

After a few weeks of rest, we must regroup, reenergise and reemerge as a stronger movement. A movement, that despite momentary weariness, will persevere for as long as it takes to see justice come.
I for one, will be there.

Tracking for you for my last time…probably,

Phil

Ministerial addresses continued throughout the day. President Obama dissapointed many with a lacklustre address that lacked concrete details. In contrast, President Lula of Brazil gave a barn-burning speech that offered real commitments and indicated the willingness of Brazil to finance others. Mid-morning, US President Obama met with a tight circle of world leaders for more detailed discussion – Canada was not present on that list. Later, when the countries broke for lunch, Prime Minister Harper did have a quick chat with President Obama.

In the early afternoon, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez demonstrated their resistance to the closed turn in the negotiations, arguing that “there are no first or second class people, or first or second class nations”. Tuvalu pointed out that they continue to be excluded from discussions and they have yet to be presented with a concrete draft text for discussion.

Across Copenhagen, Canada received a colossal ‘Fossil Of the Year’, our third year in a row, the satirical award granted to the country that does the most to obstruct the climate negotiations. The awards presentation was particularly lively, with colourful video footage featured on CBC news. Along the same vein in Canada, the Globe and Mail revealed that an MP in British Columbia is dismissing climate change science to concerned constituents.

In the afternoon, Obama delayed his flight home to meet with Brazil, India, China, and South African heads of state. Emerging from this meeting, he spoke to a press conference at around 10:30pm in the Bella Centre. Here he announced a deal with these four major emerging economies that has left many baffled – ostensibly this kind of brokerage would be key to establishing a foundation for a good agreement. Unfortunately, there are many troubling indications about the deal as presented. It is not legally binding, it does not include any concrete targets, and it does not set a timeline to reach a final agreement.  Ultimately, it sidelines the multilateral process of the UN and excludes many of the nations that have the most at stake, including the least developed countries and small island states. These countries have yet to see a concrete text, a concern they have been raising all week as they remain outside the privileged circles of consultation.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated his satisfaction with the deal as it sits. In many ways, Canada could not be more content. Their confident repetitions of low expectations have materialised almost perfectly. During a CBC interview today, it would seem Harper is trying take credit, for “what the Conservative government has been saying for four years is now the underpinning of this agreement”, namely that it must involve all economies (even at the risk of no substance, it seems). Furthermore, Harper stresses that Canada will continue to harmonize with the US – arguably a one-sided claim given that Canada was not present during any high-level consultations convened by Obama.

However, not all is decided. The entire UN assembly has yet to meet in the plenary, and it is possible that the G77 may block this agreement. The European Union has also yet to respond. Many countries have very legitimate concerns with the abandonment of the multi-lateral process and the hard work of many delegations over the past two days, and two years. It’s all still up in the air.

In the meantime, hopes are frustrated here in Copenhagen. The current proposals on the table do nothing to prevent the spectre of dangerous global warming, in fact they lock the world into a 3 degree rise, as revealed in a leaked negotiation text from the secretariat this morning.

More is expected and must be delivered.

Much love from Copenhagen,

Rosa

Having been shut out of the negotiations this is how the trackers are following the action now.

Physically
Emotionally
Psychologically

Exhausted

Here in Copenhagen the negotiations are still going on. As we can’t get into the actual negotiations we are all sat in a room in the city centre watching them on a big screen.

But no one really seems to know what’s going on.

Including the people at the negotiations.

Yvo just told everyone there to watch the monitors to find out where the next meeting will be at 10pm!

Then 2 min later he came back to say, no it will be 11pm, so maybe now would be a good time to go get food…seriously.

He looked pretty tired and confused.

These talks are on a downward spiral. Any hope we have had over the last few months is fading. Not a single leader has delivered any leadership….

As the talks continue on way into the night what we are looking at getting out of them is weaker than anything we ever imagined two weeks ago.

Fair, ambitious, binding…..

Not a single one of our demands is looking likely.

Of course we can’t really know exactly what we will get, because at the final hour everything is now going on behind closed doors. But the mood in the rooms we have access to, both inside and outside the conference centre, is defiantly not one of hope.

As the night goes on, all we can say for certain though, is that we just don’t know.

It’s going to be a long night.

Exhaustion will have to wait.

Bill McKibben, American environmentalist and founder of 350.org, responds to Obama’s press conference this evening:

“This is a declaration that small and poor countries don’t matter, that international civil society doesn’t matter, and that serious limits on carbon don’t matter. The president has wrecked the UN and he’s wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming. It may get Obama a reputation as a tough American leader, but it’s at the expense of everything progressives have held dear. 189 countries have been left powerless, and the foxes now guard the carbon henhouse without any oversight.”

Ricken Patel, Executive Director of Avaaz.org, said:

“The so-called Copenhagen Accord is an historic failure, representing the collapse of international efforts to sign a binding global treaty that can stop catastrophic climate change. Perhaps most telling, while leaders themselves recognize that this agreement is insufficient, they have set no deadline or even date to complete it.

“After years of effort, it’s important for the world to understand why Copenhagen failed, and the bulk of the responsibility lies with two nations. While the us and china had some differences, they shared a determination to produce a weak agreement in Copenhagen. The world’s largest polluters formed a low ambition carbon coalition, and prevented the world from rising to this historic challenge. The world called for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty, but the US opposed fairness, China opposed bindingness, and they both opposed ambition. Each had their reasons. The US is hamstrung by a legislature captured by the fossil fuel lobby, and Chinese leaders will not risk the high growth rates that legitimates their undemocratic rule. Every nation will pay the price for the avarice and flawed governance of these two countries.

“While leaders failed to make history in copenhagen, ordinary people did not. In thousands of vigils, flashmobs, rallies and marches, millions of petition signatures, and hundreds of thousands of phone calls, a movement was born in this moment, and that is the most hopeful story today. While leaders were divided in Copenhagen, people were not. This battle has been lost, but it is a long fight, and the people cannot afford to lose.

“There are some opening champagne at this moment. They are the fossil fuel lobbyists and polluting industries who have worked for years to capture key leaders and deny democracy today. They have so far operated in the shadows, but in the coming months the climate movement will take the fight directly to these lobbies and the legislatures they have captured.

“We discovered today that the fight to save the planet from catastrophic climate change will be longer and tougher than many thought. But we have also seen the rise of a movement that can win it.”

Statement of Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., on tonight’s announcement by President Obama:

“Climate negotiations in Copenhagen have yielded a sham agreement with no real requirements for any countries. This is not a strong deal or a just one — it isn’t even a real one. It’s just repackaging old positions and pretending they’re new. The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilizing climate.

“The blame for the failure to achieve a real deal lies squarely on the rich countries whose pollution has caused the climate crisis — especially the United States. Rich countries refused to budge from the grossly inadequate emissions reduction proposals they brought to Copenhagen, and they failed to put sufficient money on the table so that poor countries that did not cause this crisis have the capacity to cope with it.

“With the future of all humans on this planet at stake, rich countries must muster far more political will than they exhibited here. If they do not, small island states will become submerged, people in vulnerable communities across the globe will be afflicted with hunger and disease, and wars over access to food and water will rage.

“The devastation will extend to those of us who live in wealthy countries. If we cannot find a way to cooperate with others to produce a real agreement to solve this problem, climate change impacts will devastate the U.S. economy, undermine our security, and inflict irreparable harm on future generations.

“The failure to produce anything meaningful in Copenhagen must serve as a wake up call to all who care about the future. It is a call to action. Corporate polluters and other special interests have such overwhelming influence that rich country governments are willing to agree only to fig leaf solutions. This is unacceptable, and it must change.

“Fortunately, while the cost of solving the climate crisis rises each day we fail to act, the crisis remains one that can largely be averted. It is up to the citizens of the world — especially citizens of the United States, which has so impeded progress — to mobilize and ensure that true solutions carry the day. I firmly believe that together, we can still achieve a politics in which climate justice prevails.”

###

Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director:

“The world’s nations have come together and concluded a historic–if incomplete–agreement to begin tackling global warming. Tonight’s announcement is but a first step and much work remains to be done in the days and months ahead in order to seal a final international climate deal that is fair, binding, and ambitious. It is imperative that negotiations resume as soon as possible.

“President Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States Senate. That a deal was reached at all is testament to President Obama’s leadership–all the more remarkable because of the very weak hand he was dealt because of the Senate’s failure to pass domestic clean energy and climate legislation. Now that the rest of the world–including countries like China and India–has made clear that it is willing to take action, the Senate must pass domestic legislation as soon as possible. America and the world can no longer be held hostage to petty politics and obstructionism.

“What was clear over the past two weeks is that there is no argument over the science of global warming or the urgency with which we must act. A parade of developed and developing counties alike made crystal clear that they would implement their national plans to tackle global warming and building the clean energy economy not because they were required to do so, but because it was simply in their own national interest to do so.

“The agreement reached here has all the ingredients necessary to construct a final treaty–a mitigation target of 2 degrees Celsius, nationally appropriate action plans, a mechanism for international climate finance, and transparency with regard to national commitments. President Obama has made much progress in past 11 months and it now appears that the U.S.–and the world–is ready to do the hard work necessary to finish what was started here in Copenhagen.

“A chilly two weeks in Copenhagen has given humanity its best chance of preventing the ravages of a warming world. Today’s deal is neither perfect nor complete, but we must not this chance slip away.”

The United States, China, India and South Africa have reached a “meaningful agreement” at the Copenhagen climate change conference, an Obama administration official said.

“It’s not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change, but it’s an important first step,” the official said. “No country is entirely satisfied with each element, but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make progress.”  [read more]

Obama presser imminent. Watch or listen here.