COP15 ARTICLES: Queues, protests and ministers

Jesús Marcos Gamero Rus

Publicado en: Política y Clima por Jesús Marcos Gamero Rus. Texto original


PUBLISHED IN BALADNA SYRIAN NEWSPAPER. 16th DECEMBER 2009

Bella center is a small representation of the world and the mankind. Countries cooperating and arguing, people sharing their fears, dreams, hopes, interests or hates. Economic interests surrounding most of the conversations. Politicians, activists, journalist, celebrities, students, policemen, waiters, cleaners, etc., who care or not about the final result of the Conference.

In the world there also queues, as those since Monday are blocking the Bella Center, with participants just arriving being forced to spend between six to eight hours in registration lines at 0°C. At this stage of the Conference the total number of people requesting accreditation had hit more than 40,000, thus far exceeding the 15,000 capacity of the convention center, so entrance limitations have just started and more are expected for the high-level segment set to begin on Wednesday. Mayor restrictions will be applied to NGOs which reacted angrily to this and complained about being excluded from the process breaking one of the main principles repeated during the conference, “accountability, transparence and the role constructive and vital of civil society.”


Meanwhile, negotiations continue with the same pattern as the days before, with fear, mistrust and suspicion having come to rule – particularly between industrialized and developing countries. Substantive work on the long-term cooperative action (LCA) issues has been suspended at different stages due to the “deadlock” between these two main blocks.

With Ministers already involved in negotiations, protests raised again among developing countries as only LCA issues were to be discussed at the ministerial level while Kyoto Protocol commitments by develop countries were not planned to have enough attention at the ministerial level. This was solved by the presidency leading to an agreement to hold informal consultations on “crunch issues” under both negotiations tracks. “It looks like rich countries wanted to wash their hands with regard their commitments” criticized a delegate of the African Union.

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COP15 ARTICLES: A feeble climate deal

PUBLISHED IN BALADNA SYRIAN NEWSPAPER. 20 DECEMBER 2009



“Every country is able to destroy the earth system in order to respect their own national sovereignty and the interests of their nationals, in spite that we live under the same physical system and we breathe the same air.” This should be the first article that should be draft from the conclusions of the COP15 in Copenhagen during December 2009.

As sad as it is. The classic 19th century European nation state definition has marked the guidelines of a decision that will affect the earth system, its life and its human population without distinction of their nationality, origin, religion, gender, race, or age, among those different factor that make the humans different from each other.



The summit has finish with a feeble climate deal. Big expectations for a decision that everybody knew that it was going to be cooked in the last hours. A massive movement of UN staff, country delegates, NGO´s activists, media, and the rest of devote professionals for a final unsatisfactory decision that, in fact, could have be taken in a, for example and in order to be climate friendly, videoconference between the leaders of the main polluters countries and blocks.

We, the frog, are still boiling. The issue was and is complex and one choice had to be made between two alternatives that can be explained in this way:
  1. To live with the 100% of the privileges, that can be enjoyed in our carbon dependent modern society for the next, for example, two years and after that decided what to do if climate get worst or;
  2. To adapt, NOW, our way of life by taking the risk of reduce our carbon emissions by 40% for the next 10 years with the trade-offs that this could suppose for our carbon related comfortable lives and the cost that this could suppose for our economies, jobs, political systems, etc., even with the safety that this decision will better assure the right of our descendants to live in a healthy planet.
Final question: From these two, what was the decision taken by world leaders last Friday night in Copenhagen?
Jesús Marcos Gamero Rus

COP15 ARTICLES: If climate were a bank, sure its was already save



Climate change negotiations in Copenhagen are part of a learning process that humanity is taking now after years, decades or, why not, centuries of misuse and look down on the earth system.

The result of this behavior can be compared with the boiled frog story: If we place a frog in boiling water, it will jump out when feeling the heat. But, if it’s placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. True or false, (do not try this at home, please) this anecdote it’s very useful when we analyze the human reaction when facing climate change and in general, the inability of people to react to significant changes when they occur gradually. In Copenhagen we (the frog) have tried to jump out of the saucepan.

The expected crisis unleashed at the COP15 during the morning and afternoon of Thursday 16th, reminds us again that too much has to be done in the future in order to lay the foundations of a learning process that can assure the future and well-being of next generations.



President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, reminded on his press conference that “earth can live without humans, but humans cannot live without earth.” Thus, “Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights”. “We are all interdependent. We now must begin to realise that the Earth does not belong to us,” he said. “It’s the other way around. We belong to the Earth.”

It could be a nice starting point for the future. Meanwhile, negotiations continued on Thursday in deadlock. The claims of developing countries are not being heard by developed countries. Just a last remark: 75-100 billion US dollars a year is needed to help poor nations to fight climate change. Iraq war has cost between 1.3 and 3 trillion dollars. $515.4 billions are the 2009 of the US Department of Defense.
Jesús Marcos Gamero Rus

COP15 ARTICLES: Drivers for Arab Involvement



 PUBLISHED IN BALADNA SYRIAN NEWSPAPER. 15th DECEMBER 2009

The 2009 report on climate change of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development found that greenhouse emissions in the Arab World contribute merely 4.2% to the global emissions. However, the impact of climate change on the fragile environment of the region and its people is expected to be immense as its been experience in Syria:  change in natural weather patterns, scarcity of food and water, loss of coastal areas, disruption to ecosystems, and adverse effects on human health are just some of the direct threats.

In spite of this, and the related social and political consequences that climate change can have over the region, climate negotiations have been over the years underestimated by Arab countries, with the exception of the Arab oil producer’s countries which followed the negotiations in order to defend their own economic interests.

The small number of journalists, civil society organizations or clean energy specialists from the Arab and Middle East world, together with the weakness of the positions of most of their delegations does not look to be counteracted with the assistance of some of its top leaders: Mubarak, Bouteflika or Ahmadinejad together with Salam Fayyad from Palestine, Abbas El Fassi from Morocco, Prince Hamzah from Jordan, Hariri from Lebanon and the Ministers of Environment of Syria and Turkey among others, are expected to come to Copenhagen.

However, COP15 has to be a turning point. The Arab world cannot ignore a problem that will affect directly its whole 500 millions population. So the real work starts after the end of the conference: creation of special units at the top levels of governments with enough executive capacities to put countries on the track of low carbon sustainable systems; establishment of public-private partnerships aimed to implement the different financial mechanism that will be decided in COP15; training of senior staff in the different environmental, financial or political areas affected; awareness and education campaigns for the whole population, etc…  Are we ready?
Jesús Marcos Gamero Rus