The flight from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq, on the western side of Greenland normally takes about 4 hours. On our flight the captain has announced it will take longer because of strong (over 200 Miles per hour) had winds. I can’t help but think these strong winds are part of the Global Climate System, which made me want to take advantage of the flight to write some thoughts about Climate Change.
We are less than 90 days away from the COP 15 (15th Conference of the Parties) meeting, which will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Beginning early December world leaders will come together to establish a global agreement that would come into effect after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol expires, and which will serve as a plan of action to tackle Climate Change.
Because Climate Change is already occurring, we will do three things with respect of it: mitigate, adapt, and suffer. What we can still do is chose the ‘mix’ of these, depending on our leadership and action. If we act now and reach a good international agreement in Copenhagen, we will mitigate a lot, have to adapt less, and suffer little because of Climate Change. If we fail to act we will hardly mitigate its intensity, hence need to adapt much more to its effects, and suffer much from them!
We can all contribute to the effort of stopping Climate Change – the most important challenge humanity has ever faced! All of my life I have been a part of this ‘battle’. During ten years in business it meant working on energy efficiency, using less resources and overall being more efficient. During the next ten years of public service it meant instituting a Carbon Tax to constitute an Environmental Services Fund. This Fund then purchased environmental services from small farmers such as carbon sequestration through the planting and growing of tress, or the protection of aquifers that fed into hydro energy projects. During the last ten years of international work, it has meant working on different initiatives to broaden understanding about Climate Change, and mobilize groups to concrete actions in the fight against it.
In the run-up to Copenhagen, I have also taken an active part in two promising efforts.
One is called the “Carbon War Room”. Together with a group of progressive entrepreneurs, Sir Richard Branson came up with the idea of establishing a “Carbon War Room” (www.carbonwarroom.com) Its mission is to select ‘battles’ in the war against Climate Change that can be fought and won, with victory constituting important emission reductions in these sectors. I chair the Executive Committee of this effort, and we are well on our way to identifying the first battles we will fight!
The other one is called the Global Observatory. Last June while participating in the Tallberg Forum I launched the idea of constituting a “Global Observatory” (www.globalobservatory.net) to inform people around the world how and what their governments were doing with respect to the up-coming Copenhagen negotiations. A group of participants immediately sprung up to the challenge, and thanks to their efforts the Global Observatory is becoming a reality in Copenhagen. How will it operate? We will receive in real-time reports from the negotiation center in Copenhagen, on how the negotiation process is going. A group of undisputed experts from around the world will analyze the information coming from the negotiation center, and interpret this as being good or bad for the world. They will inform selected global leaders who are already volunteering for this effort, who will then share these perspectives with peoples around the world through old and new media. We hope to empower people to act – either congratulate their government for good actions at Copenhagen, or demand from them greater responsibility if they are not helping to reach a high quality agreement at the negotiations.
We all need to get involved. What can you do that contributes to win the war against Climate Change?
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