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Live from Copenhagen: Women discouraged by COP outcome - but committed to hope and action for 2010

The women’s organizations comprising the Women and Gender Constituency under the UNFCCC– including WECF, GenderCC, WEDO, LIFE e.V. and others– are dismayed by the lack of progress

22.12.2009 |WECF news

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The lives of millions of people are at stake, entire nations are expected to disappear under the ocean, but global leaders in Copenhagen failed to commit to necessary measures for an equitable and legally binding global post-Kyoto agreement. The women’s constituency of observer organisations at UNFCCC, – including WECF, GenderCC, WEDO, Energia and others,– are dismayed by the lack of progress. Women are the most affected by climate change, and at the same time, key agents of change, and see that we have no time to lose.

What do we have?

As Yvo de Boer puts it. Copenhagen summit was “a rollercoaster ride”.
The only outcome is a paper “the Copenhagen accord” which was not approved by the 192 UN member countries, but was negotiated among a small group of key countries. The paper’s only achievement is that it recognizes the necessity to contained global warming to the 2°C limit. Furthermore, the papers calls for commitments of industrialized countries, engagements of developing countries, but commitments are few and far too weak. With current promises, global warming will reach well beyond the 2 degree limit.

Some latest scientific studies have proved that with the actual mitigation targets of the member states, we won’t be able to avoid a 3°C global warming. Thus, the Copenhagen agreement is really too weak and too shy. Even with a 2 degrees global warming, most of the small islands will disappear and adverse consequences of climate change will hurt populations, states security and economies roughly.

Consequently, the purpose is now to avoid an average global warming of 1,5 °C. Even with this objective there will be some adverse consequences of climate change, but we need to be realistic, global warming has already begun and the process will be hard to slow and stop. This is why it is so urgent to act now. Thus, member states missed the greatest opportunity of the century and wasted time that can not be catched up at a moment when the emergency is an evidence for all.

Why did it fail?

Global warming is a global threat to existence of humanity, and therefore needs a global governance system which has the mandate and scope of action to engage all countries in protecting the climate and to hold all countries accountable which fail to deliver. It is essential that the United Nations system is strengthened to address global warming. All countries need to unite to prevent destruction of cultures, economies, entire nations.

It seemed, no country really wanted to commit alone. All countries were waiting for others. For example, industrialized countries were waiting for developing countries to accepted required transparency in exchange to for financing. Developing countries said industrialized countries didn’t deliver on the funding necessary.

Moreover, global governance failed because of a lack of leadership. No state was able to lead the others to a common ground whereas they all had the same discourse on the danger of climate change and the emergency of reaction and the need to act now. Many of them were also waiting for Obama to take this lead. Brazil national statement, which was just before the US national statement, called for a “wise man”, “an angel” to come save the deal and lead states to a common ground. Unfortunately, there was no “wise” man or woman who stood up the challenge.

It seems completely inappropriate for some heads of state, to develop a new paper – “the Copenhagen accord” – which was agreed on in a small group, and to present it to the press before obtaining the input from all other states (the COP), and then leaving before discussing it with the COP. It also seemed a missed chance, that the Danish presidency changed and could not live up to the necessary role of moderating and facilitating common progress, inclusively, in an atmosphere of mutual trust.

Last but not least, the failure of organizing the logistics of the conference, in a way all stakeholders and parties could participate adequately. With the exclusion of civil society a very bad precedent has been set, which is not all supportive of the aim of climate convention, namely to get all citizens and politicians in the world

The great number of participants from all sectors who came to Copenhagen, well prepared with presentations, publications, position papers, showed the great concern worldwide about the issue. Instead of being able to contribute their share, many never even entered the Bella conference center, despite the fact that all were officially registered, and had obtained permission for official participation, side events or exhibitions. 

We call for an independent evaluation of the failures on the side of the organization in Denmark, to allow to avoid future problems.

What to do now- Is there still hope?

Millions of people around the world are very frustrated with the poor outcome of Copenhagen. These people need to be given the possibility to take individual action, starting to make a difference for the climate at a local and national level. And global leaders need to regain trust of their constituencies, by coming with a proposal to strengthen the UN mechanisms for global climate protection. It remains inacceptable that heads of state continue to present global climate protection as a cost for their country, instead of the only solution for humankind, and , a great opportunity to transform towards sustainable, low-carbon, transparent, democratic, economies. Women want to play a crucial part in this transformation.

We therefore call for

• increasing the number of women chairs in the UNFCCC
• increasing access for women to existing mitigation and adaptation funds
• increasing access for participation of women and men from all sectors in national and global climate policies
• strengthening a commitment to prioritize the most vulnerable, and strengthening gender-sensitive approaches in the draft Mexico agreement

We also call on individuals and consumers to act in every act of our daily lives to secure the future of our children and our grandchildren; consumers to make use of their consumption power, and support countries and products which are good for the climate and the planet, and avoid countries and products which are not
The only and real success of Copenhagen can become a broader movement of citizens and consumers, fueled by the behavior of each to switch to a sustainable way of life, and can become the base for a global, ambitious, equitable, legally binding agreement for climate protection in Mexico next year. It is not too late yet.

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