The Earth lost, MNCs won

Copenhegan Conference : Dr. Banwari Lal Sharma

People of the world were hoping that Copenhegan Conference would be successful in finding a solution to the climate crisis. However, it turned out to be otherwise. People saw that MNCs existence and their profit is more important than the Mother Earth’s own existence. Copenhegan Conference successfully undid what was achieved in last 20-25 years to save the Earth. Developed countries, specially the US which is most polluting country and responsible for present climate crisis- had already given proofs of their insincerity and dishonesty in Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and it seems they are still unchanged. As some one remarked in Rio that overconsumption of the West was also responsible for earth’s destruction, the then US president George Bush Senior’s curt rebuff came- “Our life style is not for negotiation.” It means, whatever be the price, they would continue their living style and no one can question it.

In fact, at the root of the crisis lies those misdeeds of the West which Davi Copenava, representative of Yonamagi Indians of Brazil, exposed during his visit to Europe just before the Copenhegan Conference. He said “We all know the Earth is changing which is dangerous for us all. If you continue to kill people, dug out oil and mineral, cut down trees for wood destroying the nature, then this planet will surely fall ill, killing, burning drowning all of us.” Davi further said- “White man’s strong roots lie in cities. He can not change, he has become mad for land. He always exploits it more and more so that his city can flourish. He always think of over and beneath the earth : oil, gold, minerals, roads, cars, rails. He can not be happy. We, the Yanomagi people, are of different kind. We think of and speak about land, water, river, mountains, moon, stars, run through our heart and spirit."

An Appraisal of Climate Crisis :

Behind big hopes from Copenhegan are those worries which Davi put in his own way. Other people of the Earth are expressing their worries in their own ways. Resident of a small island in pecific ocean Tuwalu are worried because their island is only 2 feet higher than the sea level. Temperature ois causing polar ice to melt, rise raising the sea level. It spells doom for tiny islanders. Not only Tuwalu but Maldev, Lakshdweep, Andaman and Nicobar islands and Sunderbans in West Bangal, Kuttanad in Kerala will also submerge under the sea. Melting glaciers will cause rivers to dry up and forest to burn down.

Rising temperature due to increasing emission of green house gases, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide- is causing havoc with climate as well as human being and if it is not kept in check, horrifyng outcomes will ensue. Agriculture will be worst hit, throw world food security in jeopardy. According to a report presented by expert committee of the FAO, only 1-20C rise in temperature would spell doom for crop production in South Asia and sub-Sahara region in Africa. For example 10 Celcius rise will cause annual decline in wheat production by 6 million tons in India. The same effect will be for other crops, creating losses of Rs 90 billion to poor farmers.

Contentious Issues :

Copenhegan showed that the world is devided into two parts. The scenes, which have been common in WTO Conferences, were the same in Copenhegan. On one side there were developed countries who, rejecting earlier agreements, tried to put blame on the developing countries.

For the developing countries, on the other han, the first contentious issue was the Kyoto Protocol. The first earth summit in Rio in 1992 decided that to save the earth from rising temperature, CO2 emission had to be curtailed. Negotiations went on till 1997 and in that year Kyoto Protocol was signed which had provisions only for developed countries to cut their carbon emission under a time bound program, the US 7%, Europe 6.5% and Japan 6%. Several developed countries got this treaty ratified too by their respective parliaments. But the US did not ratify the treaty by its Congress and finally rejected Kyoto Protocol saying the treaty would have adverse impact on its industries.

Several rounds of preparatory talks preceded the Copenhegan Conference, in New Delhi in September in Bangkok in October and in Barcelona in November 2009. In Bangkok it became clear that the developed nations had jumped to the US side and they were no longer ready to accept Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding international treaty which now stands rejected by the developed nations. They now are presenting different draft proposals which call for voluntary emission cuts by nations and an international inspection mechanism to oversee these voluntary cuts. Developing countries had, however, rejected these proposals in Barcelona meeting. Kyoto Protocol provided that the developing nations would require money and technologies to keep their emission cut targets, which developed nations would supply as they had major responsibilities with regard to climate crisis.

The second contentious issue is related to emission cut targets. Developing nations want 40% reduction in the emission increase after 1990 and this should be achieved before 2020. Non-US countries are adamant that this cut should be 16 to 23% while the US demands only 11 to 17%. Developed nations not only backed out from their earlier promises but they are now blaming the developing nations as major contributors to the crisis In Barcelona, developed nations wanted that the vast difference of responsibilities between developed and developing nations should to be narrowed. They also put great emphasis on the new mechanism of international inspection and reporting and pressurise leading developing nations (China and India) to accept the new cut targets. However, these proposals were not even negotiated upon in the Bali (Indonesia) negotiations and they do not have any place in the present UN Climate Change frame work.

And the developed nations now seem in no mood to provide finances and technologies required to bring down greenhouse gases emission of the developing nations, for which they had made commitments in Kyoto Protocol. They have to give 1 to 5% of their GDP for this purpose which they seem not ready for it.

What decision was taken at Copenhegan:

In Copenhegan the developing nations, specially the Africans and Latin Americans, were adamant on implementing the Kyoto Protocol and no change in Bali Action Plan would be acceptable to them. Developed nations were, however, not ready for this. They asked for forgetting the Kyoto Protocol and presented a new draft, Denmark Draft, which requires all the nations to announce voluntary cuts in their emissions and open them to inspection for an international organization. Responsibility to announce voluntary cuts lies on both developed and developing nations without any difference.

Leading developing nations- Brazil, South Africa, India and China formed a group to be called BASIC. BASIC initially supported the stand taken by the developing nations. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced that he would not accept any change in Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagan Conference was going to end without having any agreement.

Obama’s theatrics and BASIC’s change of stand:

The Conference was heading towards unsuccessful end and some leaders had left the vanue. then US president Barak Obama played his last trump card. He first embraced China who is not less culprit than the US as far as the green house emission goes. Dr. Manmohan Singh had reached airport from where he was called back and BASIC countries, under US pressure, finally changed their stand, taking side with the US, leaving the African and Latin Americans to fend for themselves and agreed on Denmark Draft with some minor changes. This new agreement resolves not to let the earth temperature rise by more than 20 Celsius, developed nations will provide $100 billion to developing nations for implementing their commitments and the agreement will be executed before 2015. Developed nations will announce their voluntary emission cut targets (not binding under any international agreement) within next one year. They will not be under any legal obligation.

At the time of this agreement only few countries were present, but they went through and announced it. Political aspect of climate crisis will be dealt with in Mexico Conference next year.

A few countries were present when this agreement was done and later announced. Developing countries rejected this agreement saying the BASIC Countries had deceive. Cuba, Venezuela condemned openely India, China Brazil and South Africa.

India demonstrates again : it is in the US camp:

After Copenhegan Conference India’s environment minister Jay Ram Ramesh issued an statement that Conference was successful and India played an important role in its successful completion. Ramesh, however, forgot what he said on December 14. He said “I have made it amply clear that we come here not for any new agreement, we are here not to negotiate on any long term protocol… India would not deter from Kyoto Protocol, or any long term commitment.” Shyam Saran, India’s special envoy on climate change, said-”To talk about any political agreement instead of legally binding decisions and to suggest that we could achieve something before end of 2010 are mere conjectures worthy of immediate rejection.”

After the Conference Indian government assured the parliament that the Conference would not impact on our sovereignty, Environmentalist R.K. Pachauri too explained that the US had no right to interfere in India’s internal matters. It is, however, known that India has now lost position of leadership of the third world and become a US ally.

The Earth lost, MNCs won : Compenhegan Conference turned into Climate trade fair

Do the developed nations’ governments not recognize the crisis the earth’s very survival is subjected to? They know and recogniseit, but they are in the clutches of big corporations and hence they cannot take independent decision. Not only environmentalists, but all those who are sitting in the front seats of the governments know that it is the multinational corporation who now control and run the present model of industrialization which is the main cause of the climate crisis. The truth is : without taming these giant corporations climate changes cannot be checked. Now the global efforts, being made since last 20-25 years to save the planet earth, have been undone in Copenhegan. MNCs were active since first Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio to create an atmosphere that they could not be blamed for the crisis. In that summit they spent huge money on transport and stationary to make sure that they should not be named as the main culprit. They succeeded. In second Earth Summit in 2002 in Joheneseberg they came out in open into the conference hall advertising through glittering pamphlets that they are the ones who know how to save the environment and NGO should take their help.

Nest step they took in Copenhegan Conference where they and their protages organized a kind of trade fair there to tell the participating people what they have done to save environment and to check temperature rise. More than 100 such organizations camping there include International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), US Chamber of Commerce (USCC), Business Europe, World Economic Forum (WEF), World Nuclear Association, International Air Transport Association, World Steel Association, Society of Engineers, United Construction Industry, FICCI and CII from India etc. These organizations and their member companies were camping there to see that no resolution against them came up in the Conference and the lucrative Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) and Carbon Trading Businesses remain in their hand. They know that in future carbon trading is going to become a huge business and for this they are doing research, inventing new equipments and instrumentalities