Historic opportunity to avert climate chaos squandered in Copenhagen

Working through the night, negotiators struggled to understand the status of the so called ‘Copenhagen Accord’  as the Copenhagen Climate Summit came to an inglorious, incoherent and fiercely disputed close.

“We have had a year of crises, but today the biggest one facing humanity is a leadership crisis. The so-called Copenhagen Accord is a failure of political will – it fails the basic test for an acceptable outcome – the agreement is not fair, it is not ambitious, and it is not binding” warned Greenpeace Canada Climate and Energy Coordinator, Dave Martin from Copenhagen.  “This failure could condemn millions to death as the impacts of runaway climate change escalate in coming years.” 

The Copenhagen Accord is being hailed by some as a step forward. It is not. It has not even been formally adopted by the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP).  It does not contain strong measures for emission reductions in developed countries. It is a major concession to climate polluting industries, especially in the fossil fuel sector which lobbied hard to undermine a deal and now has a license to continue to pollute.

In the lead-up to Copenhagen, Greenpeace put the climate crimes of the Alberta tar sands on the agenda at the climate conference through a series of civil disobedience actions in September and October against tar sands operations in Alberta. Cabinet documents leaked during Copenhagen showed that the Harper government wants to weaken its already weak reduction targets to allow continued, unchecked expansion of the tar sands and greenhouse gas emissions.

“Canadians want action on climate change.  They don’t want the tar sands corporations to dictate Canada’s environment and foreign policy.” 

Canada received 10 Fossil-of-the-Day awards from Climate Action Network at the Copenhagen conference. The tongue-in-cheek awards are given to countries that block progress in some way at the negotiations. The large number of fossils resulted in the Canada receiving the ‘colossal fossil’ award as worst country at the conference. 

“Climate science says we have only a few years left to halt the rise in emissions before runaway climate change will result in catastrophic impacts. We cannot change that science, so instead we will have to change the politics, and we may have to change the politicians.”
 

Read Dave Martin's comments on the agreement

Read the Copenhagen Accord

Take Action:

Email or call Prime Minister Harper:

Prime Minister Harper: Harper.S@parl.gc.ca                       

(613) 992-4211 Ottawa; (403) 253-7990 Calgary constituency office

Suggested E-mail text:

Mr. Harper: You and other world leaders from developed countries failed in Copenhagen. You failed to listen to Canadians who wanted you to support a fair and binding agreement at the United Nations climate conference. You all failed people in developing countries who are already suffering from climate change. Hundreds of thousands are dying every year from the effects of climate change.

It was embarrassing to watch my government on the world stage undermine progress at Copenhagen. In the coming months, you must do far more to be part of the solution to global warming. You must agree to legally binding, science-based reduction targets for Canada of at least 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. You must agree to significant funding to help the developing world adapt to and mitigate climate change. You must agree to measures that will halt global deforestation and promote a clean energy future.

You still have an opportunity to show leadership on climate change. 

Failure to fight climate change is not an option. 

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