FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COPENHAGEN, A CLIMATE SHAME – BUT WE ARE NOT DONE YET!

The Copenhagen climate summit has ended without the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that millions of citizens around the work demanded.

Despite the calls from millions and millions of voices all over the world demanding action and moral leadership. the 120 world leaders gathered for the last two days of the summit were unable to resolve issues blocking the road towards a just outcome.

19/12/2009

“My hope has been dashed. Despite a mandate from citizens around the world, and over 120 world leaders attending the Summit, the bickering continued. Our leaders did not lead, they did not act. The summit has failed to produce anything that could be called a FAB deal,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Green Peace International and GCAP Co-Chair, “The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a chance to change the world, to seize the day, and put us on a path way to peace and prosperity, to embark on a path of climate justice. In doing so, they could have banished the spectre of catastrophic climate change.  In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through,” he added.

As a result, world leaders have failed the millions of people all over the world who are living on a daily basis with the very real impacts of climate change – as documented by GCAP’s Climate Justice Hearings & Gender and Climate Change Tribunals held in 18 countries over the past few months (see www.whiteband.org). 

One positive outcome from Copenhagen has been the appearance of a new movement, touching millions of people in hundreds of countries around the world, that saw civil society cooperating on a single issue as never before.   More than 250 organisations, including the GCAP coalition, came together to form an unprecedented alliance under the TckTckTck banner. Three days of global action broke records with climate demonstrations, and this movement - perhaps the most diverse ever seen - stands united as we look to the future.  

“Millions of people around the world look to the future and see hope, justice, and opportunity. They will continue to speak out to get the real deal that the world needs in 2010. The most marginalized and vulnerable people need to be heard by leaders if a climate deal is going to meet their needs,” said Lysa John, Campaign Director of GCAP in Mumbai.

The anti poverty movement holds with the view that world’s leaders still have a chance to get it right. They must realize that the world expects this and will not accept anything less.  “Let’s hope for COP 16,” says Kenneth Amoateng of GCAP Ghana, “For if we have hope we have life.”

They’re not done yet. Neither are we.

See the TckTckTck campaign statement

 

The Copenhagen Accord

The Copenhagen Accord is based on a proposal tabled on Friday 17 December by a US-led group of five nations - China, India, Brazil and South Africa.  The accord includes a recognition to limit temperature rises to less than 2C and a promises to deliver $30bn aid for developing nations over the next three years and outlines a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change.

The accord was not universally agreed upon by all the negotiators attending the summit. .  In fact, a  number of countries have objected to it , in particular a number of South American countries who oppose the undemocratic way in which it has been tabled.

"I've asked to see this text," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "but I have not been allowed. 'Top secret!' That's what they say ... This is not a democratic or inclusive text, it is a text that has been thrust upon us from out of the blue, and we will not accept any text other than that which comes from the working group for the Kyoto Protocol and the Convention, which are the legitimate texts that we have been so intensely negotiating for these past two years."

African delegates also expressed their outreach at the draft text with Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, chair of the Group of 77 and China calling it the worst deal in the history of climate negotiations.

"This deal will definitely result in massive devastation in Africa and small island states," he said. "It has the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It's nothing short of climate change Scepticism in action. It locks countries into a cycle of poverty for ever. Obama has eliminated any difference between him and Bush."

Described by GCAP Co-Chair and Executive Director of GreenPeace Kumi Naidoo as “a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through” the accord spells disaster for people in countries already suffering the impacts of climate change. For example:

• There is  no reference to a legally binding agreement,
• There is only a recognition to limit temperature rises to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels (despite strong statements from African and Small Island Nations that anything over 1.5C was suicide)
• There was no further commitment from the European Union to adopt a more ambitious positon on reducing carbon emissions, groups were calling for a 30% reduction compared to the 20% commttied by the EU.
• While $30 billion in aid for combating climate change has been promised immediately for the period 2010-2012– not only is it not clear where this finance is going to come from but the commitment falls short of the amounts

For more information contact:
Fionuala Cregan, GCAP Mobilisation Coordinator, fionuala.cregan[at]whiteband.org +353861786469
Helena Suarez, helena.suarez[at]whiteband.org

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