Given the disparity between what is needed and what is being said by global North countries on the key issues of 350 ppm, emission reductions, climate financing, and carbon markets, what might be the real result of the talks in Copenhagen?
AFRICAN DELEGATES TO WALK OUT?
Jess Worth writes in the New Internationalist that, “One strategy being discussed by African civil society and government delegates is to turn Copenhagen into another Seattle.”
“Dennis Brutus, venerable South African poet and activist, explains, ‘African Union insiders would work with massed protest outside to prevent the North from doing a deal on their own interests against Africa’s and the planet’s. A decade ago the formula stopped the World Trade Organization’s Millenium Road from succeeding in Seattle.'”
NEXT MEETINGS
It has been reported that following COP 15 in Copenhagen, there could be an extra United Nations summit on climate change in the spring of 2010.
This could be consistent with the Globe and Mail report which says, “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Copenhagen talks, which end December 18, should pave the way to an ambitious and legally binding global treaty within six months.”
And then COP 16 is scheduled to take place in Mexico City in December 2010.
BEYOND COPENHAGEN
Worth adds in the New Internationalist that, “Copenhagen is the last chance – for the bloated and corrupt UN circus to deliver genuine action on climate change. When it fails, it will be time for the rest of us to take over.”
“Movements recognize that we don’t have time to wait for international agreements to be painstakingly negotiated over many years then wait some more time for them to be ratified, then cross our fingers and hope that governments will actually stick to the targets they’ve signed up to. We don’t have time. We need to stop emissions now, take action locally to build the alternatives, and create such strong national movements for climate justice that politicians are forced to follow suit.”
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