World's Largest Climate Conference Opens With Hope

Over 15,000 people, including government officials and representatives from the private sector, environmental organizations and research institutions, as well as 110 heads of state and government are taking part in the two-week summit, making it the largest gathering on climate change that has ever taken place.

"A deal is within our reach," the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in his opening speech. He emphasized that the talks must overcome deep distrust between wealthy nations and poor nations on how to tackle the financial burden of curbing emissions.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen addresses the opening session of the UN climate conference. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

The presence of more than a hundred world leaders means "an opportunity the world cannot afford to miss," Lars Løkke Rasmussen said.

At a press briefing, the President of the UN climate change conference, Connie Hedegaard, said that "the deadline is working," referring to the fact that both developed and developing countries had been presenting emission reduction targets ahead of the conference.

Asked if there is enough time to reach a deal in Copenhagen, Hedegaard said that you never feel you have sufficient time for a task that has to be done, but "within the time we have, we must solve the task."

"There are moments in history where the world can choose to go down different paths," said Hedegaard. "The COP15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen is one of those defining moments. We can choose to go down the road towards green prosperity and a more sustainable future. Or we can choose a pathway to stalemate and do nothing about climate change leaving an enormous bill for our kids and grand-kids to pay. It really isn’t that hard a choice."

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said there is unprecedented political momentum for a new deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"World leaders are calling for an agreement that offers serious emission limitation goals and that captures the provision of significant financial and technological support to developing countries," he said.

"At the same time, Copenhagen will only be a success if it delivers significant and immediate action that begins the day the conference ends," said de Boer.

"The costs of responding to climate change will become progressively higher as time goes on," said Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Therefore, we must take action now."

The IPCC has found that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, and that global emissions must be halved by 2050.

Besides commitments to cut emissions, a major aspect of the negotiations is financing of mitigation and adaptation to climate change in developing countries. At the press briefing UN’s top climate negotiator Yvo de Boer said that the talks are about the amount of money needed from the developed countries. Yet another important issue is "how do we allocate the still limited resources," according to him.

On December 17 and 18, the world leaders will converge on Copenhagen in an attempt to seal a political global climate deal. Any agreement that is reached will be the basis of a treaty that will govern greenhouse gas emissions after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.

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