Saturday, December 5, 2009

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be taking place December 7 – December 18, this year at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.  They are expecting approximately 15,000 participants from 192 countries!  This will make it the largest political conference ever held in Denmark.

The main focus of the conference will be to get international agreement on how to reduce fossil fuel usage, which many scientists claim is driving global warming. The conference organizers believe that it will be much less costly to make the necessary changes now rather than at some time in the future.

Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s Minister for Climate and Energy, is a strong supporter of the conference. She points out quite correctly that developing countries will be wanting to use more energy, not less, and argues that in times of economic crisis it would be wise to limit energy consumption. She states that phenomenal amounts of energy are being consumed uselessly. Carbon dioxide emissions grew three percent last year, which scientists predict will have drastic effects on weather and infrastructure and ultimately will lead to conflicts world-wide.

She hopes that an EU agreement on carbon reduction burden sharing will happen before the end of the year and asserts that without this agreement it will be difficult to achieve the ambitious objectives of the Copenhagen Conference.

India, Poland, and Denmark have joined forces to facilitate a climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. The starting point is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992. The ultimate objective is a low-carbon society that would result in stabilization of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous climate change.

For those who want to know more, a wikipedia article provides a great deal of background information. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change.

Sources: 
http://en.cop15.dk/files/Docs/Other%20documentation/COP15_moedebrochure_web.pdf.
http://en.cop15.dk/about+cop15/information+for/delegates/show+article?articleid=302.
http://en.cop15.dk/about+cop15/information+for/delegates/show+article?articleid=303.

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