Nations to meet in Copenhagen for environmental conference
By Leonardo Chusan
Dec. 2, 2009 11:56 p.m.
On Dec. 7, the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and will involve leaders from around the world discussing possible actions for battling climate change.
The conference will last for two weeks, from Dec. 7 to 18.
According to the official Copenhagen 15 conference Web site, 98 world leaders have accepted an invitation by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to attend the conference. The most notable leaders scheduled to attend include President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Waiting for her last final to conclude on Dec. 11, Rebecca Miller, chair of E3: Ecology, Economy, Equity and a fourth-year environmental science and anthropology student, will be attending the two-week conference.
Miller will be in Copenhagen for the second week of the conference and will attend as an official observer representing the California Student Sustainability Coalition, a project of the nonprofit Earth Island Institute.
“(The Copenhagen conference) symbolizes a global collaboration on our world’s biggest issue: … climate change,” Miller said.
The structure of the conference has caused some to question what it actually represents.
“I think it represents an obvious and more urgent concern for climate change considering that the United Nations is spending over a week in conferences,” said Nancy Salas, a fourth-year sociology student.
“I personally think it’s more of a ceremonial conference in that significant results will be more apparent through new legislations and media efforts that help guide the population.”
The possibility that any real agreement will be made at a summit involving so many heads of states seems unlikely, said Richard Ambrose, director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Program.
“Copenhagen was viewed as being an opportunity to really set more serious limitations, … but it’s a very difficult thing politically,” Ambrose said.
However, even if there is not a formal agreement to be handed out, Ambrose said, the conference is another step in a process of getting all the countries of the world to recognize the importance of reducing greenhouse gases.
A statement from Yvo de Boer, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary, on the convention’s Web site said, “Governments must reach agreement on all the essential elements of a comprehensive, fair and effective deal on climate change, that both ensures long-term commitments and launches immediate actions.”
In an interview with Environment & Energy Publishing, Boer said he seeks to address questions about how much industrialized countries are willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and how much major developing countries such as China and India are willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions.
