PFT Reports from Copenhagen Climate Talks

This week historic climate talks are underway in Copenhagen, where delegates from nearly 200 nations are meeting to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The conference opened with somber warnings about the consequences of inaction, echoed in an unprecedented op-ed run by 56 newspapers in 45 countries around the globe.

Here in the United States we already are seeing the devastating effects of climate change in our forests, biologist Thomas Lovejoy wrote in the Dec. 8 New York Times.

Ecosystem failure has begun to take place in the world’s oceans and "in the coniferous forests of North America as milder winters and longer summers tip the balance in favor of native bark beetles," wrote Lovejoy, our 2008 Forest Fete speaker. “In the United States, approximately 22 million acres are currently projected to be affected. It is an enormous forest and fire management problem. It is hard to project what the future of these forests will be.”

Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) Board Secretary Andrea Tuttle has arrived in Denmark, joining thousands of other attendees concerned with the fate of forests in a new treaty. Tuttle, an international forestry consultant, is part of the California delegation attending the United Nations talks, dubbed COP 15. The acronym is short for the 15th "Conference of the Parties."

Tuttle will be joined by PFT Policy Project Manager Emily Russell-Roy on Friday. They will attend a COP 15 side-conference, Forest Day 3, where more than 1,000 representatives from nations around the globe will seek common ground on forest-based climate solutions.

Tuttle and Russell-Roy will be sharing details of our Working Forests, Winning Climate campaign work with other Forest Day delegates, presenting a poster illustrating the importance of strong forest carbon accounting standards. They’ll also be delivering reports from Copenhagen to us here at home.

Tuttle sets the stage with her first post below.

COP 15 is Launched!

Excitement in the air is palpable here in Copenhagen, a beautiful European city offering its welcome. We’re surrounded by thousands of delegates and observers and an electric atmosphere of anticipation – it’s a fantastic scene to be part of!

The streets are lit and plazas are full of displays related to the climate talks. Urban art, glowing globes, bike lanes packed with riders, windmills along the train track and easy public transit connections tell the climate story outside.

Inside is the center of world diplomacy. Officials, observers and media fill the huge meeting rooms and lounges. Delegates from 192 countries crowd the rows of tables behind their nameplates. Intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and – encouragingly – big delegations of youth groups watch the official meetings and then separate into hundreds of side events on more aspects of climate mitigation, adaptation, financing, markets, technology and forestry than you can imagine.

For the official negotiators 11 days of hard discussions lie ahead. The opening gavel Monday set a sobering tone as Dr. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) listed the realities of climate data. Yvo de Boer, Executive Director of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began with the words of a 6-year-old boy whose parents had been swept away in the raging waters of a storm. The sharp business tones of COP 15 President Connie Hedegaard repeated a challenge: “Seal the Deal.”

The opening sessions were demanding and serious – but leapfrogged the long hours of old rhetoric. These negotiators have been at this for years and are very familiar with the blame, mistrust and grandstanding that can sideline progress.

Statements by parties were crystallized into three-minute segments making clear where we agree and where we still divide. Countries speak through negotiating blocs and as individual entities.

The developing world – represented by the United Nation’s Group of 77 plus China (now actually about 130 countries), the Small Island States, the Africa group, the Latin America coalition and others – reaffirmed their “differentiated responsibility.” Among the key principles in the UNFCCC Convention is the recognition that industrialized, developed countries disproportionately created more of the emissions that fuel global warming - and so should take the lead in addressing the consequences.

Developing nations want ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets from the industrialized world, and seek financial assistance for dealing with the effects of climate change through adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer and capacity building. They haven't forgotten as-yet unmet promises from Kyoto, committing the developed world to provide funds to help them bear the brunt of climate impacts. Indeed, money is key to a deal.

The developed world speaks through the European Union and the Umbrella Group, a loose bloc of non-European Union countries including Australia, Japan, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States. Their statements were emphatic – stating the targets they’re ready to take, the commitments they’re ready to deliver, and the funds they’re ready to pledge. What they demand in exchange is for the developing world to take the first step in grappling with their own emissions: requiring accurate reporting that is transparent and verifiable.

What’s really new – wholly refreshing and a huge relief – is the strong voice of the United States. Finally, we’re really here. The statement of Jonathan Pershing, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, was clear, firm, engaging and rational.

So the Opening Day challenge has been delivered. Now comes the contentious wading through hundreds of pages of bracketed negotiating text and finally making decisions. What the final architecture will be is still a fundamental debate – an extension of an amended Kyoto Protocol (the U.S. says absolutely not), or a whole new Copenhagen Accord? Many of these meetings are closed – but hundreds of side events now lure the rest of us into full days of learning, discussions, networking and coalition building.