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Why Copenhagen Failed

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Message shamus cooke

To anybody interested in the future of the earth's climate, the conclusion of the Copenhagen conference represents either colossal disappointment or profound rage. The financial pledges-- if honored-- that rich nations made to poor nations will do nothing to combat global warming. The few climate related agreements that were made were of zero substance, especially when compared to what the situation demanded.

The sorrowful outcome, however, could have been predicted in the conference's first week, based on two seemingly unrelated events: The conference showcased the largest police action in Denmark's history (including mass arrests of "troublemakers"); while also producing the largest ever boom in limousine rentals. Both happenings helped reveal the true nature of the conference, spelling doom for climate progress.


Contrary to the hopes of billions of people, the talks were a purely elite affair. Many of the thousands of delegates sent to the conference were not looking to save the planet, as advertised, but were looking out for the national interest of their native governments. Most of these countries are dominated by the "special interests" of giant corporations.

Big business in the rich nations used the conference as a cynical maneuver to maintain their economic dominance over the "emerging business" in the developing countries. This fact was at first obscured by technical language, until the now-famous "Danish Text" was leaked to the press in the first week of the conference.

This document was a conference proposal written by the
U.S. and England, though submitted by Denmark. The Danish Text proposes that developed nations -- the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc. -- be allowed to pollute twice the amount of developing countries -- China, India, Russia, Brazil, etc. -- for the next fifty years.

If enacted, the corporations of the developing nations would be forced to function under an incredible economic handicap. Their governments would have, of course, rejected such nonsense, giving the
U.S. delegates the needed excuse to blame China for the failed talks (the U.S. media has done this with absolute disregard for facts).

The Danish Text also proposed to move future climate talks out of the realm of the too-democratic UN into the U.S./Europe dominated World Bank. Obama has thus surpassed his predecessor in the realm of global arrogance.

However, the
U.S. torpedoed the talks long before they ever began, forcing the international media to campaign in favor of "lower expectations." The New York Times explains:

-- when Mr. Obama and other world leaders met last month, they were forced to abandon the goal of reaching a binding accord at Copenhagen because the American political system is not ready to agree to a treaty that would force the United States, over time, to accept profound changes in its energy, transport and manufacturing [corporate] sectors." (
December 13, 2009).

Instead of building upon the foundation of the already-insufficient Kyoto Protocol, the Obama administration demanded a whole new structure, something that would take years to achieve. The
Kyoto framework was abandoned because it included legally binding agreements, and was based on multi-lateral, agreed-upon reductions of greenhouse gasses (however insufficient). Instead, Obama proposed that --each country set its own rules and to decide unilaterally how to meet its target." (The Guardian, September 15, 2009).

This way, there is zero accountability, zero oversight, and therefore, zero climate progress. Any country may make any number of symbolic "pledges" to combat global warming, while actually doing very little to follow through -- much like billions of dollars rich countries pledged to Africa that have yet to leave western bank accounts.

Obama's maneuvering to ruin
Copenhagen was correctly assessed by Canadian writer Naomi Klein, who said that Obama, like Bush, is "using multi-lateralism to destroy multi-lateralism." This means that Obama is participating in international organizations like the UN Copenhagen conference, with no intention of reaching agreements. Once the U.S. blames its overseas rivals for the failure to "cooperate," a more independent path can be struck.

This is reminiscent of Bush's path to invading
Iraq: he used the UN Security Council to pass resolutions against Iraq, which helped him weaken Iraq while strengthening U.S. public opinion. But when the Security Council wouldn't agree to an invasion, Bush assembled a pathetic "coalition of the willing" to attack, completely abandoning the UN (Obama appears to be following an identical approach with Iran). U.S. corporations wanted to dominate Iraq's huge oil reserves and other treasures, to the detriment of the corporations within Europe, Russia, and China.

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Shamus Cooke is a social service worker and activist living in Portland Oregon.
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