Copenhagen, Dec 16 (Inditop.com) There was suppressed anger at the climate summit Wednesday and turmoil all around. The ire was expressed by India, China, Brazil and other developing countries, the turmoil by the repeated quarrels between security personnel and activists who were not allowed in.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh remained one of the few optimistic people here at the end of the day. “Things will be sorted out by tomorrow,” he predicted, referring to the points of dispute between developed and developing countries that have been holding up climate agreement for many years.
“The prime minister is coming here, all international leaders are looking towards him to provide leadership and he will provide it,” Ramesh said.
In contrast to this optimism, there was turmoil in the Danish capital throughout the day, as the world looked on.
The host country came up with a new draft Copenhagen Agreement, a move promptly objected to by Brazil, China, India and the Group of 77, in that order. This halted the Dec 7-18 summit in its tracks, and all that happened afterwards in public were formal speeches by ministers.
There was progress in private however, the basis of Ramesh’s optimism. Denmark’s Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard sat with representatives of 25 countries – including India – she had designated “friends of the chair” to work out a “compromise” Copenhagen Agreement. Representatives from all groups of developed and developing countries took part.
The drama started when Hedegaard announced she was resigning from her position as president of this year’s UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference. Not many delegates or observers knew at that stage she had planned to start the “real” work in private, as an Indian official put it.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen took over the presidency, and was the target of the developing countries’ ire as word leaked out of the host country’s intention to table a fresh draft of the agreement, rather than the drafts they had finalised after overnight negotiations.
Global climate negotiations take place under two tracks – one under the Kyoto Protocol (the current treaty to fight climate change) and the other for “long-term cooperative action (LCA)”.
Negotiators from the 192 countries gathered here worked out a draft under the Kyoto Protocol half and hour after midnight, while those working in the LCA room took the whole night, till 7 a.m. Wednesday. Then they went for breakfast and returned at 10, to be told the Danish government had a new draft.
Brazil’s representative was the first to object, promptly followed by China’s Su Wei and India’s Environment Secretary Vijai Sharma, who said: “This process has to have inclusivity, transparency and has to be party (country) driven.”
Rasmussen, who was in the chair, said: “We have to move forward and cannot be held back by procedure, procedure, procedure,”
Su promptly responded: “It is not just procedure, it is a question of respect for 192 countries.” He charged the Danish prime minister of “obstructing progress”.
“It is a matter of good faith,” added Sharma.
Rasmussen pointed out that Denmark had not actually tabled a proposal yet. As the meeting broke up in confusion, he announced that ministers and heads of state who are already here would go ahead with their speeches, in the style of the annual UN General Assembly.
Even that formal session became dramatic soon after it started, as two of the few green activists who had been allowed into Bella Centre – the conference venue – ran to the podium, only to be rugby tackled by security personnel and led away.
Though the formal session settled down, the buzz did not, with talk that the US had asked for another meeting of ministers, something that would hold up proceedings when there was a critical shortage of time.
While all this was going on inside, most of the 22,000-odd NGO representatives gathered in this city for the summit spent the day out in occasional snowstorms without being able to get in, and many a quarrel broke out in the queues as jittery security personnel turned the conference venue into a fortress.
Some NGOs – including well-known ones like the Friends of the Earth – who had been sharply critical of the lack of progress at this summit Wednesday found their delegate badges were not being honoured any more, adding to the turmoil.
