United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 - Assignment Example

?United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 Table of Contents Answer 3 Answer 2. 7 Answer 3. 13 Reference List 15 Answer Overview of the Conference The Global Warming phenomenon has its origin from a century and it is defined as the progressive increase in the earth’s average temperature over the past few centuries. The main cause of global warming is the increase in the concentration of the green house gases that are produced by the human activities like the emission of carbon and deforestation. To control the harmful effect of global warming, many polices were made to reduce the emission of carbon. The policies have the objective to prevent against the dangerous consequences, which are leading to climatic changes. Climate treaty was made in 1997 addressing the harmful effects of the carbon emission in the climate, which is known as the Kyoto Protocol (Vidal et al., 2009). The treaty was however unapproved by the major economic countries including the United States. It helped the developed countries but the developing countries were not at all happy with the treaty. The developing countries like China and India also opposed to this treaty as 50% reduction in emission will wreck their economy. The nations looked forward for an agreement which will help them to develop their economy and also prevent the harmful effects of emission (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009). The United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 7th December to 19th December, 2009. It was the conference which included 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC) and the fifth meeting to the Kyoto Protocol. It is basically the continuation of Kyoto Protocol. It marked the conclusion of the two years negotiating process, which enhanced the international climate change collaboration between the countries. More than 115 world leaders attended the conference along with 40,000 people who are the advisors or the governmental or the non-governmental organizations (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009). The conference took place with the aim of addressing the adverse effects of the climatic change that is taking place with the emission of the carbon and green house gases. The developing countries hoped that the Copenhagen Conference will make a fair deal for them by settling the issue of the dangerous climatic changes. But the conference went through a lot of controversies for a week as the developing countries like China and India pointed out that the conference has not been transparent to them. Lot of decisions was made prior to the summit and that news infuriated China. The leakage of the news that European Union has agreed to cut down carbon emission about 50% along with other developed countries. They have completed industrialization so they can afford to cut the emission to that extent. But the developing countries like China, India, etc cannot afford to reduce the emission to that extent because that will bring an end to their economic development. China in alliance with India said that the Copenhagen Conference was held only to make a show off by the European Nations after Kyoto Protocol was opposed by all the developing countries. They even pointed out the fact that the conference aimed at creating a pressure on the developing countries as all the decisions are made before the conference only. United Kingdom (UK) which is the member state of European Union had experienced increase in the carbon emission till 1990 basically due to the extensive manufacture of the short term consumer goods. But with the initiation of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the government of UK was forced to reduce the emission by 50%. As UK has been a developed country it did not face that much problem in reducing to that extent. In 2009, when the Copenhagen Conference was held they have their own set of mission and vision before coming to the conference which are given below (Anup, 2009). a) Mission of United Kingdom UK is a developed country so it can reduce the carbon emission to a significant level by 2050. Before coming to the conference they aimed at reducing the emission by 50% by 2050. They are making use of the primary energy that is helping them to reduce the carbon emission to that extent. They introduced the carbon budgets for putting a limit to the green gas emission. To keep informed about the climate and energy policy they took the help of statistics on greenhouse gas emissions. They used EU Emission Trading Scheme for delivering the significant reduction in carbon emission between 2013 and 2020 (Kossof, 2009). Vision of United Kingdom UK made the statement that “We have made a start but the agreement needs to become legal quickly” (Anup, 2009). UK aims at reducing the emission by 20-30% from 1990. They aim at achieving the peak of the national and global emission as soon as possible. They took the help of 2050 calculator to let the policy makers and public remain informed about the different options for meeting 2050 carbon emission reduction (Kossof, 2009). Mission of China China is a developing country and its industrialization has not been so developed as UK. So they seek to have moderate reduction in the emission so that they can continue their industrialization without much difficulty. They have taken various initiatives for reducing the emission from the heavy duty vehicles, which includes the reduction in emission of carbon dioxide and the black carbon. They have focused on increasing the carbon capture and utilization. They have concentrated in increasing the energy efficiency in the buildings and the industry of the country. They have developed the smart grid system, deploy the renewable energy and targeted in improving the demand management (Edge and Adam, 2009). Vision of China China aims at reducing the emission intensity to 40-45% from 1990 to 2020.   Mission of Greenpeace Greenpeace has been the representative from the world’s government in the Copenhagen Conference, 2009. Their activists in the conference reminded the world leaders to make a fair deal for all the countries worldwide and bind on the climate treaty. Their media personnel were there in the conference and had given every minute update of the conference to the public. Their policy experts and the climate scientists are working to bring an energy revolution in the developed countries and also help the developing countries to make them adjust with the reduction in the emission (Greenpeace, 2009). Vision of Greenpeace They aim to bring energy revolution in the developed countries and help the developing countries to adjust with the reduction in carbon emission (Greenpeace, 2009). b) Strategies taken by UK The main strategy of UK before coming to the conference was to get their demand approved in the conference. They were one of the rich countries which indulged into the controversy of getting their claim accepted in the conference through unfair means. They created pressure on the developing countries by setting a target of 50% reduction in carbon emission despite of knowing that their economy is not that developed. Strategies taken by China The main aim of China before coming in the conference is to block the closed door negotiation for 2 weeks and ensure that Western Countries feel that they have failed to the poor again. They even pointed out the fact that “the rich countries have bullied the developing nations” (Edge and Adam, 2009). They even commented firmly that they are not successful in doing so because China being one of the economic powers vetoed the closed door decisions that are taken by the rich countries. Leaders of China did not attend the conference and they sent their advisor. But the advisor walked out of the conference when he saw that deal was going wrong. This made many leaders of the countries point out to the fact that China had come only to destroy the meet. Strategies taken by Greenpeace They are present in the conference to make the rich countries remind of their morality and put forward a fair deal before the developing nations. They went there as the representative from the world’s government so they expected a deal which will favour all the countries of the world. They voiced the developing countries when they were left unheard in the conference and the rich intended to make their own deal (Vidal et al., 2009). Answer 2. The general strategies that are devised and recommend to each of the three participating nations UK, China and Greenpeace are as follows: United Kingdom UK has undergone rapid industrialization after the World War II and thus it has emerged as a developed nation and happens to be the world’s first industrialized country. It has been the world’s sixth largest economy by the nominal Gross Domestic Product. From the first industrial revolution since 19th century UK has grown rapidly creating new industries like heavy manufacturing sector units (steel, thermal power stations, automobile manufacturing plants, etc.). Industrialization has thus generated huge employment and economic development all over UK. But at the same time they were generating huge amounts of carbon emission in the form of CO2 and released waste effluents in environment. But UK got the first mover advantage as their industrialization was at initial stage. At that time the environment laws were not that stringent and there have been no such protocols to limit the carbon emissions. So at that time UK did not think much about the climate change as the main effect of industrialization. So slowly UK transformed into a developed nations from a developing nation taking advantage of the less stringent environmental rules in the later part of the 20th century. As UK has become a developed nation now it does not depend on heavy industries anymore and they have ventured into alternative technologies that requires great care. It yields emission but lesser to the extent that has moderate effect on the climate change (Dell’Amore, 2009). Therefore, the following strategies are suggested to attain the objectives and goals of the conference which are as follows: 1) They should tackle the climate change by aiming at reducing carbon by using secure, clean and affordable energy. 2) Focusing on increasing the dependency on fossil fuels, oil and gas imports and fuel imports. 3) They should focus on making provisions for the electricity generation through non-renewable sources of energy (mainly wind power). 4) Generating energy by the use of low carbon heat. 5) Using the biomass as the source of energy. 6) Focusing on the increased use of bio fuel and peak oil. 7) They should concentrate on adapting the following mitigation technology a) Promote the benefits of making use of the electric vehicles. b) Promote local action to circulate the importance of the climate change. China China produces the highest amount of carbon pollution in the world. Since it is a developing country it has the maximum number of industries that are present in the globe. Therefore, the pollution and carbon emission levels in China are significant enough for threatening the climatic balance and acts as a catalyst in changing the climatic conditions. The following strategies are suggested which will help China to achieve its goals and objective regarding climate change: 1) China can introduce the policy of emission trading in its industrial cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. 2) They can concentrate on increasing the use of non fossil fuels energy. 3) They should increase its forest coverage by planting trees and increase the forest stock volume by a maximum incremental percentage. 4) China should aim at introducing the statistical accounting systems for measuring the greenhouse gas emissions. 5) They can impose national resource tax on coal, natural gases, metals and crude oils. 6) China can plan to devote more funds in renewable resources of energy that will offer the country with efficient energy supply. China boasts of having the world’s largest installed renewable energy. It can strategically plan to develop more on the existing system. 7) Can vouch upon doubling of renewable energy resource generation systems such as wind capacity, solar capacity, hydro electric capacity and upon increased gas fired generation technology. 8) China has to make it mandatory that all its industries (companies) should meet energy the consumption standards. They should also impose penalty on such companies that are failing to meet by its standards. 9) Many plants in China are either shut down or decommissioned. Chinese government should make plans to replace these decommissioned plants by plants that are energy efficient and are economically more viable. Greenpeace Greenpeace is a NGO which works for the development of the environment and ensure that earth is not affected by any climatic change. It focuses on the crucial issues that are taking place worldwide. Those are global warming, overfishing, deforestation, anti- nuclear issues and commercial whaling. Greenpeace is one of the first organizations to undertake a sustainable development programme for the climate change issue. Greenpeace continuously involves itself onto a number of campaigning strategies around the globe. Greenpeace attended the Copenhagen conference in 2009 as representative of the world’s government. They attended the conference with aim of raising voicing for a fair deal for the countries all over the world. The major strategies that Greenpeace can device in combating the issue of climate change mitigation are as follows: 1) They can produce scientific reports to the countries by examining the climate changes that are taking place worldwide. 2) They can tie up with the government of the respective countries to make modifications in the environmental policies. 3) They can work with the industries and guide them by changing the practices and replace them with those practices that will not harm the environment. 4) It can supply information concerning the environment to the public, industries and the government and raise the awareness of the climate changes that are taking place due to the human actions. 5) They should focus on the harmful effects of the substances such as CFC, AEROSOLS that cause ozone depletion and spread awareness to the nations. 6) The scientists and the policy makers of the organizations should look forward for building new greener technologies for large scale usage. 7) Greenpeace should make the countries understand that they should decrease the greenhouse gas emissions close to zero by the year 2050. 8) They should provide funds to the developing countries to create a sustainable energy capacity. 9) They should take an initiative to protest against deforestation and arrange payment for the plantation of trees and even stop deforestation. 10) They should campaign for “Reduce, Reuse and recycle”. 11) Give protection to the tropical forests with specialized funding. 12) They should make an appeal to the government of the countries to replace the use of fossil fuel with clean and efficient renewable energy. 13) Greenpeace uses photography for communicating with the public and spreading awareness of serious climatic issues and thus they should work on improving the communication. 14) Their campaigns and banners should contain the following messages to the public: a) Stop the climatic changes. b) Save the ancient forests and oceans. c) Ban Genetic engineering. d) Protest against the nuclear threats. e) Abolish toxic wastes. f) Encourage sustainable trade. 15) Greenpeace must monitor the news reports so that there are no anomalies in the climatic change information. 16) Greenpeace must try to specifically categorize the risks and victims of climate change such as the impact of glaciers and make their immediate but long lasting solutions. Greenpeace can also probably use the concept of carbon logic, which can set a solid platform for the next phase of campaigning of Greenpeace. Therefore, it is needless to say that these three different participants of Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009 namely UK, China and Greenpeace has to strategize accordingly based on the foundations, goals and objectives of these three participants. Answer 3. The participating nations namely UK, China and Greenpeace must take into consideration such view points while taking decisions and making choices that will yield the conference a success for all. Individual decisions of the respective three countries which will lead to success for all can be described as follows: UK being a developed country is in a position where they are capable to reduce the emission by 50 percent till the year 2050. But on the contrary, there are many developing countries such as India and China to whom a reduction by 50 percent is a difficult ordeal. Both India and China wanted modest changes to the percentage of emission reduction because they were at a disadvantage as this could have an impact on the economy of their country. Simultaneously the advanced economies like UK should try to understand the point of view of the developing countries and therefore, the agreement should be so designed to keep the balance among the developed and developing nations. Therefore, the reduction percentage of emissions needed to be decided on an individualistic basis and not on a holistic basis. China has been sceptical regarding the theory of reduction of emission by 50% by the year 2050 because it is still a developing economy and this policy could hamper its economic development. So in order to have a consensus on the climate agreement, China should also be provided with some space by the developed countries like UK and Japan to device a formula where the developed countries have a optimum percentage of reduction limits of emission levels. Therefore, the developing countries and developed countries must act synergistically so that they can arrive to an agreement where their individual emission reduction level are optimized and accomplished. NGO’s such as Greenpeace were not satisfied by the outcome of the climate conference which went in favour against the developing countries. They stated the outcomes as complete failure. According to them in particular there was a lack of specific measures in describing the plan as how the countries would keep the temperature levels below 2 degree centigrade was not clear. The NGO stated the conference outcome as a half- hearted measure and the results were heavily criticized by them along with the developing countries. Greenpeace stated that the results of the conference were not sufficient to answer the crisis that would lead to the success of the agreement. Thus, Greenpeace protested for a complete new way of collaboration between poor and rich countries. The NGO expected a rapid, ambitious and crucial movement which can save the earth and its people. Reference List Anup, S., 2009. COP15: Copenhagen Climate Conference. [online] Available at: < http://www.globalissues.org/article/784/cop15-copenhagen-climate-conference> [Accessed 16 August 2013]. Dell’Amore, C., 2009. Copenhagen climate conference: What you need to know. National Geographic News. [online] 7 December. Available at: [Accessed 16 August 2013]. Edge, A. and Adam, D., 2009. Copenhagen climate change conference 2009. The Guardian. [online] 1 May. Available at: [Accessed 16 August 2013]. Greenpeace, 2009. Greenpeace Demand. [pdf] Available at; [Accessed 16 August 2013] International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009. Summary of the Copenhagen climate change conference. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 12(459), pp. 2-30. Kossof, J., 2009. Copenhagen climate change conference 2009. The Telegraph. [online] 19 November. Available at: [Accessed 16 August 2013]. Vidal, J., Stratton, A. and Goldenberg, S., 2009. Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure. The Guardian. [online] 19 December. Available at: [Accessed 16 August 2013]. Read More