COPENHAGEN: The first week of the COP15 meeting is over and after a day of well-deserved break, everyone is back for the high profile segment of the conference. Ministers and leaders are flying in now, this is the time when a monumental decision will – or won’t – be made. So down to a quick roundup of the first week. After a very positive opening on the first day, the meetings spiraled down with one tumble after the other. The first strike was the leaking of the infamous “Danish text.†This was a proposal that required developing countries to commit to emission reductions without a commitment to money. This caused uproar in the G77/China bloc, which is mainly made of developing and emerging countries. In fact, there was talk that this document could single-handedly hijack the discussions, leading to considerable embarrassment for the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. The second hurdle came when the group known as BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, Indian, and China) put forth a second proposal. Developed countries refused many points on it, but the problem is that there rumors that this new document was causing a split within the G77/China bloc. Poorer countries accused BASIC of bypassing the G77 and putting forth a document that addressed emerging countries issues only, not the whole bloc. However, the Chinese ambassador was quick to point out that there was no disagreements within the bloc. “People have been looking for a split in the G77 for a long time, facts have proven them wrong. The bonds between countries in the developing world on fundamental questions has proved to be much much stronger than those people had hoped,†he told Bikya Masr. Tension built up as the week neared an end and there was still no agreement on a text to put forward to the UN secretariat for climate change to be discussed in the second week. However, only one day before the deadline, two proposals were put forward. The first was for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol with new targets, the second was for a new agreement along the Kyoto Protocol. After two long days, this was the document that went through. So how does everyone feel about it? There are large disagreements over the text between all parties, but it is something they are willing to work with. The African group and least developing countries (LDC) are angry it does not contain any guarantees of technology transfer to allow them to develop a low-carbon economy. The developed countries argue that the text does not take into account the effects that countries like China, which is currently the biggest carbon emitter in the world, are having on climate change. Over the next week the talks will continue on the final text. But it is now in high gear and time is running out. And things still do not look up. BM
