WSC-SD report at COP-15

World Student Community for Sustainable Development at COP15 – report

More about the report here

Young, green and online

by Aaron Thom, Sustainability@MIT

Check this link: http://sustainability.mit.edu/young-green-and-online

Reduzieren – heute mal woanders

by Tim Schloendorn, ETH Zurich

Check out this link: http://blogs.ethz.ch/klimablog/

Yes, we can! … But no, we don’t – Twist and turns at COP15

It’s over. COP15 has ended. Heads of state, ministers and delegates have left Copenhagen. I’m lying on one of the upper beds of a train compartment, heading back home and pondering on the succeedings of the last two weeks. COP15 will enter history, but I doubt it will do so for flattering causes. Many of us had anticipated this conference, hopes were high that a FAB (fair, ambitious and binding – one could say fabulous) agreement could be reached… but in the end we rather got a minimal consensus.

Twisting and turning at the Bella Center

High spirits were harshly brought back to earth in the course of the conference. At the latest when US President Barack Obama spoke on Friday evening, everyone became stone-cold sober. No significant news, no enlightening decisive steps towards real commitments. Obama brought no new impulses into the discussion and severely flawed remaining hopes. President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez accused Obama of “making a dash through the back door” and disappearing without giving clear and concise explanations – and numbers. Costa Rica’s delegation could not quite apprehend that the consensus met before in the plenary – to reach a binding agreement before COP16 in Mexico next year – was eliminated from the Copenhagen Accord. 25 countries, among them the US, Germany, India and China, agreed on a minimal consensus later that evening. To make things worse and render the whole scenario even more obscure, COP-President Lars Løkke Rasmussen was virtually chucked out of the plenary after some countries had complained about his way of conducting the conference. First Connie Hedegaard, then Lars Løkke Rasmussen… COP15 has been tough for many. It held ready clandestinely composed ’sub-agreements’ leaking out to the press, whole delegations walking out of the conferences and loads of confused and increasingly disappointed negotiators and observers. The UNFCCC even changed their header picture in the course of the negotiations, and the new one conveyed quite a clear message…

There’s not too much hope left at the Bella Center, Source: UNFCCC

Solid grounding for COP16

COP15 sometimes appeared to me been like a tug-of-war between youngsters in order to know who’s the best and strongest, without a clear consensus. The final agreement states that all parties have the right to decide on their own if (and when?) they will accept the Copenhagen Accord text – or not. The ‘good bit’ is that the accord delivers a solid grounding for later discussions. And some notable results could be achieved: the US are for the very first time pledging to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. It’s something – albeit there could be more. In this context, I’m really looking forward towards COP16 in Mexico next year. This next conference of the parties will show if our country leaders and delegates have made their homework – or if they keep on preferring to release a lot of ‘hot air’.

Katja Halbritter, MSc student at ETH Zurich

Copenhagen dreams and what remains of them

The outcome of the 15th conference of the parties is deflating. During these two December weeks of negotiations, Copenhagen has been the stage of a great theatre of hope for a Green New Deal. Over 45’000 people from all over the world came to Northern Europe in order to discuss and exchange ideas about how a sustainable modern society could look like.

The dream ended with a stone-cold feeling of soberness. The picture is one of sleeping delegates in the plenary room, defeated by the lack of consensus on the highest political level. Many representatives of the parties worked very hard for an agreement to be made; not only in the last two weeks, but over many months in preparation for this summit. However, unfortunately, it seems that the idea of a world community on the purely political level has become an empty word. National interests and competitiveness are the driving forces behind the main players’ negotiation positions. The trench between industrialised countries, emerging economies and developing states seems to have become even bigger than it had been before the COP15.

The chaotic situation shortly before the end of the conference clearly is very disappointing. The uncertainty about whether there will be a minimum consensus in the form of a common declaration was high. One could even say that the whole process was saved from a catastrophic ending in the last minute by a weak unbinding statement, which was not even approved by the conference plenum. At least the UNO-Process is not completely blocked with the achieved statement.

However, even if the result is below what many expected and even shameful in the view of some participants, the whole process still retains a certain credibility in my eyes. There were so many differing voices and contradictory interests at these negotiations that a minimum consensus is better than nothing. Clearly, we all wanted a great symphony and we merely got an overture to an unknown piece of music. Nonetheless, this is an ”essential beginning” as Ban Ki-Moon put it. At least there is still some hope for a future binding commitment. The worst case scenario of a hypocritical impracticable ”operetta” agreement would have been far worse. In this sense, U.S. president Obama is certainly right, when he stresses the imperative need for a control mechanism to review whether countries are keeping their commitments and to exchange this information in a transparent manner. Without such accountability, as Obama said, any agreement would be “empty words on a page”.

The picture that will stay in my mind from this conference is not that of sleeping delegates. My picture of Copenhagen in December 2009 is a colourful painting of innovative ideas, flourishing discussions with representatives and observers from all over the world. At the Copenhagen climate summit for mayors, the key role of cities in the climate change mitigation problematic was highlighted. Financing and international collaboration were intensely discussed between local governors and business leaders. The potential for energy saving by retrofitting of existing buildings, optimisation of public transport and the importance of the direct dialogue with the population are only a few examples of a huge melting pot of concrete actions at the local and regional government level. The possibility of creating new green jobs by promoting sustainable projects was put forward and the benefits of public-private partnership in funding were highlighted. Furthermore, amongst many other groups, students discussed actions at a university or elementary school level. The need for coordination mechanisms and exchange platforms for existing project came out clearly as being indispensable.

Going home with the night train this evening, at least I know exactly what I have to do in the next few months. Even if the international agreement still needs some time to be achieved and implemented at a local level, we all go home with a suitcase full of original ideas.

Franziska Aemisegger, PhD student, ETH Zurich

The Long Road Home

The train trip from Copenhagen to Zurich is an adventure any time of the year.  But during the last week of the COP15, where 192 nations met to develop a binding treaty to control climate change, the trip promised to provide plenty of interesting discussion.  I was not disappointed.

The night train to Zurich leaves early in the evening, which for a place so far north in winter means it was dark and already bitterly cold.  As we stood waiting for the train to arrive in Copenhagen main station, the snow had begun falling again, as it had fallen continuously for most of the second week of the COP negotiations, adding to the general unease of standing so long outside.  I reflected on just how much time I had spent waiting outside for things to happen.

I was one of the unlucky ones, who went to Copenhagen only to be denied access to the main conference center, the Bella Center, due to continuously changing UN access restrictions.  To gain access others went through exhausting measures, waking at 5:00 to be the first in line, or standing almost 12 hours in the cold to receive the necessary accreditation.

On the train platform, I met one of the 11 delegates from Liberia.  The representation at COP15 varied tremendously between countries.  Brazil reportedly registered anyone who wanted to attend, which left them with almost 700 delegates.  Liberia sent 11, seven of whom were from a university.

When it became clear that our train was going to be delayed by more than an hour, we all went back upstairs into the warmth of the covered station, much like Zurich main station.  My eyes drifted to the advertisement hanging from the middle of the station.  “Let’s Go Green Together” was stated there in friendly green print together with pea pod illustrations.  This was one of many uplifting, hopeful climate advertisements posted around the city.  It made me smile, which is so important when asking people to change their behavior.  “Turn Copenhagen into Hopenhagen,” was another city theme connecting locals to the international negotiations.

Our trip home proved to be another adventure, with a planned 17 hour ride turning into 24 hours.  Many participants from COP15 were on my train.  We all shared the same urgent hope that something would be accomplished politically to halt the unregulated emissions of greenhouse gases which are changing the climate as we know it.  We hoped that the negotiators shared the same urgency.

Elke Hodson, ETH Sustainability

„The floor is open!“

First insights into the UN Climate Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen

„Thank you, Chair, dear Delegates…“ – I have to lower the volume on the translation device – „… on behalf of my people I would like to ask the parties not to abandon the Kyoto Protocol“. I am sitting in the plenary room attending the debates during the 4th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen. The conference is in full swing and both the negotiations and the rhetorics are rapidly picking up speed and intensity at Day 4.

Around 25‘000 thousand participants (I couldn‘t find an official number yet) from all over the globe are gathering these days in and around the Bella Center – the conference center where the COP15 takes place. Representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and other Institutes have been assigned a particularly good palace in the Bella Center: right at the entrance. The daily walk among all the booths in the morning lightens up the mood due to all the colourful posters, banners, clothes and songs being sung every once in a while. Today is the „Youth and Future Generations Day“. The participants coming early to the Bella Center get either an orange scarf with the inscription „survival is not negotiable“ or an orange shirt with the question „how old will you be in 2050?“. This year is crucial in terms of climate mitigation. Science indicated that in order to stay below the 2° degree target, the global emissions should be decreased by 80% until 2050. These actions and events organized by different groups constitute an important part of the conference. Beside making daily life at the Bella Center very colourful and spontaneous – be it a flashmop or the award ceremony of the „Fossil of the Day“ to the country blocking the negotiations- , the NGOs give the civil society a voice in Copenhagen. And the message is quite clear and can be heard or seen almost everywhere: climate justice now!

The current debates in the official sessions center around this climate justice and the subtle intentions of developed countries to abandon the two-pillared approach of the last couple of years. This approach is based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with its objective in Article 2 („ … stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system“) and the Kyoto Protocol, which was set up in 1997 to give the article in the Convention an international and legally binding framework. The developing countries and their various groups, e.g. the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), call here in Copenhagen for climate justice by demanding a so-called „FAB“-Deal. „FAB“ refers not to fabulous, but to a Fair, Ambitious and legally Binding climate treaty.

The unfolding of the so-called „Danish Text“ shed a dark shadow on the hopes of many countries for a legally binding outcome of the conference by showing shortcomings both in terms of emission reductions but also in terms of financial and technological transfer to those countries already suffering from climate change. Tuvalu called for a contact group to ensure an open and transparent negotiation process, but with no success. Typical of this stage of negotiations is the fact that many strategies, working papers and drafts are discussed in ad-hoc groups formed during the conference and also in longer established groups such as the G77 & China. News are being spread almost hourly at the Bella Center. The official UNFCCC website provides live webcasts from the COP15 which give a good insight in the most recent developments of the negotiations.

It seems that almost all participants and NGOs support the call for justice made by the countries that already experiencing impacts from climate change. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, summed up the goal of this conference in a clear statement during his speech at the opening ceremony: „The clock has ticked down to zero. After two years of negotiations, the time has come to deliver“. We hope the delegations do so.

Link „Danish Text“ to http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2889

Link „live webcasts“ to  http://webcast.cop15.dk

Markus Huber, student at ETH Zurich

What’s hot at COP: Conflicts around the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

The CDM is the much debated market mechanism that should bring carbon mitigation projects to developing countries and produce offsets to be sold on the market. It’s one of the hottest stones in the Bella Center, offering huge potential and risks just about as big.

The big concern is the “additionality” of the carbon credits, meaning that they come from a project that would not have happened without the CDM. As they are used to offset emissions in developed countries, wrongly issued credits would increase the net emissions. But making sure that they are all additional is complicated and expensive. On top of this, as legislation is constantly evolving, there are large risks associated with investments in the projects. Yesterday, a project validator compared it to shooting a moving target.

There are several concepts for reform on the table from the side of the project developers, the most important being:

– Standard baselines – Today project developers need to measure the emission reduction relative to the baseline every time, even if very similar projects are already implemented

– Materiality – Meaning to accept a low level of risk of non-additionality of some projects (and decreasing the amount of issued credits) for the sake of a massive increase in the volume of projects being realised

– Positive Lists – The idea is that developers can refer to standard lists e.g. a list of countries that faces deforestation, so the developers don’t need to proof it in every single case.

At the same time the diplomats are discussing how to bring CDM to Africa, which has hardly seen any projects realised yet, and whether to include Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) projects.

Tim Schloendorn, MSc student, ETH Zurich

The butterfly effect at COP15!

Kristina and Rasmus at EU Pavillion

Young people are a driving force of the climate movement. A recurrent theme during Youth Day, a day devoted to featuring initiatives from students and youth organizations, was “the butterfly effect”. The message is that a small movement, like that from a butterfly flying in the Amazonas, can affect climate even on the other side of the globe. It is important to do something, to participate. It will have an impact even if it cannot be measured instantly. Wearing orange T-shirts with a printed message [Don’t bracket our future] during Youth Day, the youth participation at COP was very visible. Their message to the Parties at COP is obvious!

Students from AGS/Chalmers/WSCSD were busy during side-events and in the exhibition booth. Rasmus Einarsson and Kristina Sahleström talked about projects related to education for sustainability during their presentations in the EU pavilion.

Liu Guo Guo and Carl Kamp at WSC-SD corner

Liu Guoguo, CSS, is exchanging ideas with other students at the exhibition booth, in order to develop a future network towards climate action.

Her impression is that “COP15 can not only help me get to know the attitudes of different countries on the political level, but I can also learn more about how tother green organizations contribute. Global cooperation is the only solution to this urgent issue”.

Maria Svane, AGS Chalmers delegation

Renewable Energy- The Key Solution to Mitigate Climate Change

The side event consisted of a high-level discussion panel composed of The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and renewable energy industry representatives, e.g. from the wind power sector. The seminar highlighted the importance of renewable energy in mitigating climate change and of proactive policy frameworks. EREC showed interesting results from investigations showing a clear trend of growing GDP and employment by increasing use of renewable energy. That is because the renewable energy sector, e.g. production of photovoltaics, is much more work intensive compared to the conventional use of oil and coal. The session also show-cased many renewable energy solutions applicable to implement for the replacement of fossil fuels, especially interesting was the concentrated solar power. According to EREC, the sunlight reaching the earth in one day produces enough energy to satisfy the world’s current power requirements for eight years. Even though only a fraction of that potential is technically accesible, this is still enough to provide just under six times more power than the world currently requires. The session gave us a positive feeling based on the fact that the solutions and the technologies needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change is already here, we just need the political will, economical incitements, global agreements and consensus for the transition into the era of renewables to take place. For more information about the EREC project energy [r]evolution, please see:

http://www.erec.org/documents/publications/energy-revolution.html

Marcus Högberg, Johan Toren and Linus Helming, students, Chalmers University of Technology