The Copenhagen Accord on Climate, Inching Onward

By Denise De Marco

Jennifer Kurz, outreach director for US Climate Action Network. Denise De Marco/UNA-USA

Feb. 3 – Although no legally binding agreement was reached at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009, the dialogue on moving forward with an accord, brokered by President Barack Obama at the last minute in Denmark, continues to be thrashed out.

UNA-USA’s Council of Organizations held a town-hall style discussion on the outcomes of the summit as well as how the accord should proceed. The speakers at the event, held at UNA’s New York office on Jan. 14, were Dan Shepard, information officer for the UN’s Department of Public Information; and Jennifer Kurz, outreach director for the US Climate Action Network, an organization of nongovernmental groups. Aaron Etra, treasurer for the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, acted as moderator. Several key nongovernmental organizations attended the discussion, including many who attended the Copenhagen conference.

The Copenhagen accord, a 12-paragraph document arranged by President Obama and other prominent world leaders, provides for specific global temperature limitations as well as climate change financing and technology.

While the conference did not result in a fair, ambitious or legally binding document, Kurz said the summit brought major breakthroughs. This included the US administration’s showing up in force for the first time at an international negotiation, with six cabinet secretaries, the lead US climate negotiator, Todd Stern, and more than 100 people from Capitol Hill. In addition, by the time the heads of state, including Obama, arrived, no agreement had been made on the underlying text of the accord.

So, as Kurz said, “It was the first time heads of state have actually had to negotiate text with each other since Versailles.”

Countries can sign on to the accord and pledge specific emissions limitations, though the size of these reduction targets for industrialized nations versus developing nations will be different. The accord set a deadline – Jan. 31 -- that encouraged most of the major developed countries to pledge to lower their carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions. The commitments will be compiled into a document by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat. Along with gas emissions, the accord states that global temperature limits are to remain below 2 degrees Celsius, but it does not reconcile what happens if the pledges do not comply.

The Copenhagen accord is not legally binding like the Kyoto Protocol, but Kurz thinks it acts as a tool for advocates to use in holding governments to account. Further negotiations will take place in June in Bonn, Germany, and Cancún, Mexico, in December, with the hope that an enforceable document will be agreed upon to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012.

Many press reports indicated the Copenhagen conference was a catastrophic failure, and that other avenues such as the Group of 20 developed nations should pursue plans for a formal agreement instead of the UN doing so. But Shepard of the UN thinks the world body’s Framework Convention on Climate Change is the most legitimate “central repository” for such an agreement, and it will help keep countries accountable for their pledges. He also believes the accord is a work in progress. “Climate change is going forward, there is engagement on a global level and this is an extremely positive thing,” Shepard said.

Shepard stressed how nongovernmental organizations can play a pivotal role in keeping climate change issues visible through lobbying and working outside the UN on the state level. “By writing letters and meeting with legislators, NGOs can help climate and energy change legislation move quickly through Congress and be signed into law,” he said. The failure of the US Senate to act on House legislation before the Copenhagen conference began limited the Obama administration’s ability to negotiate a final deal. With Congress on board, it would greatly improve the chances of adopting an agreement.

With all eyes on Cancún in December, paving the way forward will require a firm commitment on the part of the US, Kurz said.

For additional resources on the climate change debate, go to the following:

unfccc.int/2860.php
www.usclimatenetwork.org/
tcktcktck.org
www.unngosustainability.org
www.unep.org
www.un.org/climatechange

cleanenergyworks.us/

Denise De Marco is the development manager at UNA-USA.