Copenhagen Summit Research Articles

Avrupa Eğitim Programları ve Dil Gelişim Dosyası Türkiye Uygulaması

Abstract European relations with Turkey, which began with the application of the Republic of Turkey for membership in the European Community and continued with the acquisition of candidacy status, gained a new dimension with the Copenhagen summit on December 12, 2002. Fifteen member states of the European Community have decided that Turkey can start candidacy negotiations in December 2005 if it can prove that it meets the political and economic criteria for integration with Europe, according to development reports. With the positive outcome of this development, Turkey is expected to become a member state of the European Community, and the Turkish language will be one of the most widely spoken European languages according to the population ratio. The legal status, financial and administrative autonomy of the Turkish National Agency were approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in July 2003. The learning of Turkish by Europeans as a foreign language of Turkish began with the establishment of commercial and political relations with the Ottoman Empire, and Turkology departments were opened in many universities. In the near future, commercial and political relations between Europe and Turkey are expected to increase with the accession negotiations Dec. Programs such as Leonardo, Socrates and Lingua, which are carried out within the European Community, offering educational, participant and instructor exchange, language learning opportunities, have been carried out in recent years within the framework of projects, especially with the participation of member and candidate countries. Turkey has also participated in these programs and has established a Socrates Commission. The aim of the foreign language policy adopted and proposed by the Council of Europe is to protect and develop linguistic and cultural diversity as a source of mutual wealth and to facilitate interpersonal relations, international flow and exchange of ideas. Dec.1. The aim of the foreign language policy adopted and proposed by the Council of Europe is to protect and develop language and cultural diversity as a source Dec. In this context, the Turkish language will also be a cultural richness and diversity for Europe, and it is expected that teaching and learning it as a foreign language will also be a factor that helps Turks to express themselves better in relations with Europeans. Key Words: European Union, Turkey, European Educational Programs, Language Development File

Die Höhen und Tiefen der Europäischen Union als Akteur in der internationalen Klimapolitik

At international climate conferences, the European Union (EU) and its member states both are negotiating partners. The EU signs the treaties to protect the climate, the member states ratify and translate them into national policy. Based on the literature on actorness, we identify different dimensions in which the EU’s actor quality is articulated. Actorness has internal dimensions, such as the transfer of responsibilities, and external dimensions, such as the recognition as a contracting party by other states. Actorness, however, cannot be grasped by analysing institutions alone, but also arises discursively and situationally. We trace EU actorness for four critical points in time in international climate policy and can thus show that actorness in the policy field has increased overall over time, but that the full potential has not yet been exploited. In some dimensions, a temporary decline in actorness could be observed, especially at the Copenhagen summit. The analysis of actorness can also contribute to the explanation of a possible lack of effectiveness.

From Recurring Reference to Identity Trait: the Emergence of Social Justice in the Political Discourse of the European Communities (1950-1986)

Although the ECSC and the EEC were originally endowed with a narrow social di­mension, in the 1950s references to both Communities as promoters of social jus­tice were rather common in the European Parliament, especially in the speeches of Christian Democratic and Socialist members. In the following years, the progres­sive implementation of the social legislation of the two treaties, the first discus­sions on the launch of a regional policy, and the signing of the first association agreements with third countries, contributed to further spreading the idea of a pecu­liar European sensitivity to solidarity, fairness and inclusion. Widely shared in the European Parliament from the late 1960s, the perception of the Community as a natural bearer of social justice soon began to also permeate the statements of the other institutions, and was then formalized by the Declaration on European Identity approved by the Copenhagen summit of December 1973. From that moment on, the idea of social justice as a guiding principle of the entire European project was echoed in all solemn occasions, to be finally inserted in the founding treaties in 1986 by the Single European Act.

Sustainability and environmental stewardship: empirical analysis of selected composite indexes

The Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Summit and other World Forums have focused on policies to address global warming, biodiversity and other sustainability issues. A variety of composite indexes has been proposed to examine the sustainability status and environmental stewardship in many different nations. This paper examines a broad spectrum of these composite indexes: Inclusive Wealth Index, Environmental Performance Index, Sustainability Adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum), Global Sustainability Competitiveness Index (SolAbility), Climate Change Performance Index, Social Progress Index and Global Green Economy Index to investigate their contribution to achieving sustainable development. This analysis enables us to identify appropriate policy directions based on these indexes and current technologies.

Sustainability and environmental stewardship: empirical analysis of selected composite indexes

The Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Summit and other World Forums have focused on policies to address global warming, biodiversity and other sustainability issues. A variety of composite indexes has been proposed to examine the sustainability status and environmental stewardship in many different nations. This paper examines a broad spectrum of these composite indexes: Inclusive Wealth Index, Environmental Performance Index, Sustainability Adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum), Global Sustainability Competitiveness Index (SolAbility), Climate Change Performance Index, Social Progress Index and Global Green Economy Index to investigate their contribution to achieving sustainable development. This analysis enables us to identify appropriate policy directions based on these indexes and current technologies.

Partners at Paris? climate negotiations and transatlantic relations

ABSTRACTThere is arguably no security crisis so great as the one that stems from climate change. For some time, the EU, rather than the US, has led the way in terms of far-ranging policies to reduce carbon emissions. But despite the fact that the EU has been able to bind itself to strong environmental norms internally, it has – up until COP21 – been a relatively weak norm entrepreneur externally when seeking to convince others, especially the US, to adopt stronger environmental policies. Why was the EU finally able to increase its influence in the lead up and at the 2015 UN summit in Paris? This article argues that while the EU’s climate diplomacy has underperformed in the past, it has been quick to adapt since the 2009 Copenhagen summit through effectively broadening its epistemic community of climate diplomats, and engaging in a process of political learning.

Energy and the city

Energy and the city

Bound to lead? Rethinking China’s role after Paris in UNFCCC negotiations

As the biggest global emitter of greenhouse gases, China is an extremely important actor in international climate negotiations. During the climate summit in Copenhagen, China was blamed for its unc...

How Does Climate Change Transnationalise Environmental Movement Organisations? The Case of Denmark

Environmental movements have always dealt with intrinsically transnational issues. At the same time, many issues and strategies among environmental movement actors have been articulated as nation-based. An increased emphasis on the issue of climate change and preparations before the UN Climate Summit in 2009, held in Copenhagen, fuelled the mobilisation of both new and established environmental movement actors in Denmark. The 2009 Climate Summit in Copenhagen has been described as a failure, with claims that it led to a lost belief in international negotiations and a strategy among environmental movement actors to “go back to the national”. This article explores various forms of transnationalisation in connection to the environmental movement and the issue of climate change. We analyse the transnationalisation of the environmental movement within a particular domestic context—Denmark. Our study draws on semi-structured interviews with representatives of, and documentation from, eight environmental movement organisations in Denmark, as well as observation field notes and informal interviews with Danish movement participants and other key actors during the UN Climate Summit 2013, in Warsaw, Poland; 2014, in Lima, Peru; and 2015, in Paris, France. We conclude that climate change as an overall national and transnational agenda for established Danish environmental movement organisations can be understood through various forms of transnational processes that exist simultaneously and that link the domestic and the transnational in multiple ways.

The challenges of monitoring national climate policy: learning lessons from the EU

ABSTRACTOne of the most central and novel features of the new climate governance architecture emerging from the 2015 Paris Agreement is the transparency framework committing countries to provide, inter alia, regular progress reports on national pledges to address climate change. Many countries will rely on public policies to turn their pledges into action. This article focuses on the EU’s experience with monitoring national climate policies in order to understand the challenges that are likely to arise as the Paris Agreement is implemented around the world. To do so, the research employs – for the first time – comparative empirical data submitted by states to the EU’s monitoring system. Our findings reveal how the EU’s predominantly technical interpretation of four international reporting quality criteria – an approach borrowed from reporting on GHG fluxes – has constrained knowledge production and stymied debate on the performance of individual climate policies. Key obstacles to more in-depth reporting include not only political concerns over reporting burdens and costs, but also struggles over who determines the nature of climate policy monitoring, the perceived usefulness of reporting information, and the political control that policy knowledge inevitably generates. Given the post-Paris drive to achieve greater transparency, the EU’s experience offers a sobering reminder of the political and technical challenges associated with climate policy monitoring, challenges that are likely to bedevil the Paris Agreement for decades to come.Policy relevanceThe 2009 Copenhagen summit ushered in a more bottom-up system of international climate governance. Such systems typically depend on strong monitoring approaches to assess past performance and estimate future national contributions over time. This article shows why decision makers at multiple governance levels should pay serious attention to empirical data on the experiences and challenges that have emerged around monitoring in the EU, a self-proclaimed climate leader. The analysis highlights key political and administrative challenges that policy makers will likely encounter in implementing climate policy monitoring and ensuring transparency in the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

The ‘Power of Process:’ How Negotiation Management Influences Multilateral Cooperation

Management of a multilateral negotiation has frequently played a crucial role in developing global regimes but is often ignored in International Relations theory. The long-awaitedunclimate summit in Copenhagen, for example, broke down in 2009 but negotiations reached agreement one year later in Cancún. This article argues that power and interests remained largely constant between Copenhagen and Cancún, and that significantly altered negotiation management by the host government and theunexplains much of the difference. An analytical framework is presented to address whether and how the management of a multilateral negotiation by the organizers increases or decreases the probability of agreement. The empirical focus is on the Danish and Mexican Presidencies of climate negotiations, with extensive evidence from participant observation and 55 interviews with senior negotiators, high-levelunofficials, and lead organizers. The argument adds to the scholarship on regime development by complementing structural with process analysis.

The European Union as a global climate leader: confronting aspiration with evidence

In rhetoric and action the European Union has attempted to be a global leader in forging solutions to confront the problem of climate change. Using unique survey data collected at five consecutive UN climate summits from 2008–2012, this article provides evidence on the extent to which the EU is actually recognized as a leader in the UNFCCC climate negotiations, investigates how perceptions of EU leadership have evolved overtime, and helps make sense of the role that the EU has played in recent negotiation outcomes. The survey’s findings show that recognition of the EU as a leader dropped sharply in 2009 at the COP 15 summit in Copenhagen, but has climbed again in subsequent years. The results reveal a fragmented leadership landscape in which the EU must share or compete for leadership with other actors, such as the USA and China, who hold drastically different institutional design preferences and leadership visions than those promoted by the EU. The article’s findings provide insight into the dynamics that both foster and frustrate the EU’s aspiration to lead the effort to reach a deal on a binding post-2020 climate change agreement in Paris at COP 21.

Carbon Trading – A Profitable CSR Initiative for Reducing Economic Asymmetries among Nations

Another international climate change summit, this time in the Qatari city of Doha, has concluded without a binding agreement reached on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The failure of 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) was anticipated beforehand by everyone involved, and met with widespread indifference on the part of international media. Since, the debacle at Copenhagen summit in December 2009—which broke up without agreement on a post-Kyoto climate treaty amid bitter conflicts between the major powers — annual UN-sponsored climate summits have been restricted to negotiating various secondary issues, unrelated to the question of binding emissions targets. Heads of government have not gathered to discuss the issue in past three years, leaving junior ministers and diplomats to head negotiating teams at the subsequent summits at Cancun, Durban, and Doha. The inability of world leaders to even meet to discuss the climate change crisis, represents a devastating indictment of capitalist system. Overwhelming scientific evidence points to the serious threat posed to world's population by excessive emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The forecasts made in first UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, in 1990, have proven accurate. “We've sat back and watched the two decades unfold and warming has progressed at a rate consistent with those projections,” Matt England, of the University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Centre, told Australia's ABC Radio. “The analysis is very clear that, IPCC projections are coming true. And at the moment, we are tracking at high end in terms of our emissions, and so all of the projections that we look to at the moment are those high end forecasts.” However, the researchers believe that the conclusions will have a broader implication, that will surely help developing nations in not only reaching, the much sought economic integration among them and reducing Economic Asymmetries with developed nations, but also in reducing the emission levels to save our planet. So, if a revolution has to be there in International trade and globalization, be it the Green Way!

Uncertainty discourses in the context of climate change: A corpus-assisted analysis of UK national newspaper articles

AbstractUncertainty is intrinsic to science, to knowledge acquisition and risk assessment. When communicating about climate change, however, uncertainty can be used and understood as ‘not knowing’, that is, as ignorance. In this article we aim to understand how ‘uncertainty’ is used in a specific cultural and media context at two important periods in time. Using a corpus linguistic approach, we examine how ‘uncertainty’ was used in the context of UK press coverage of climate change in 2010 (following ‘Climategate’) and in 2014−15, after the latest IPCC report had been published. We find that after Climategate and the (failed) Copenhagen summit, ‘uncertainty’ was used to question the authority and credibility of climate science; after the latest IPCC report and in the run-up to the (more successful) Paris summit, discussions focused on uncertainties inherent in various climate change mitigation activities and associated with the economy, environment and politics more generally.

Convergence and conflict with the ‘National Interest’: Why Israel abandoned its climate policy

This article describes how Israel abandoned its climate policy through the prism of the country's evolving energy profile, most importantly the 2009 discovery of huge natural gas reserves in Israel's Mediterranean exclusive zone. The article outlines five phases of Israeli political engagement with climate change from 1992 until 2013 when the National GHG Emissions Reduction Plan was defunded. Israel was motivated to develop its climate policy by international norms: OECD membership and the 2009 UN Summit in Copenhagen. Although the eventual Plan may not have significantly reduced Israel’s emissions, it contained immediate cost-effective, energy efficiency measures. Despite rhetorical support for renewable energy, in practice, most Israeli leaders consistently perceive ensuring supply of fossil fuels as the best means to achieve energy security. The gas finds thus effectively ended a potentially significant switch towards renewable energy production. The development of commercially competitive Israeli renewable energy technology may change this prevailing economic calculus alongside renewed international and domestic leadership and a resolution of the region's conflicts. Although Israel's political circumstances are idiosyncratic, the dynamics shaping its climate policy reflect wider trends such as competing economic priorities and failure to consider long term energy security.

Coercion with kid gloves? The European Union's role in shaping a global regulatory framework for aviation emissions

ABSTRACTThe European Union (EU) is widely assumed to be a global environmental leader, especially in addressing climate change, though this reputation suffered greatly when European leaders were sidelined during the 2009 United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Subsequently, however, the EU has made significant progress in extending its Emission Trading System to the aviation sector, one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and did so not only regionally, but also managed to get it onto the global policy agenda. This contribution investigates the EU's role in shaping the 2013 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) resolution committing 191 government signatories to developing a global market-based measure to cap international aviation's carbon pollution. While not exactly setting new environmental standards or achieving definitive regulatory success, the case illustrates the agenda-setting capacity of the EU through leveraging its market power and adopting an explicitly extra-territorial rule to induce potential regulatory co-operation.

Atolls in the ocean—canaries in the mine? Australian journalism contesting climate change impacts in the Pacific

This article has two complementary aspects, empirical and theoretical. Empirically, it examines the reportage of the two most prolific Australian journalists on the threat posed by climate change to low-lying Pacific island states, reporting over the two-year period leading up to and following the high-profile COP15 summit in Copenhagen in 2009. It was at that summit that the concerns of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS) were given extensive media coverage and managed to dominate the agenda for several days, to the consternation of some other summit participants. COP15 affords a good case study because the media coverage of this issue was variegated and heavily contested, contrary to earlier scholarly claims about an allegedly mono-dimensional quality to the journalism about climate change in the Pacific Ocean (Nash & Bacon, 2013).

Supporting the EU’s Approach to Climate Change: The Discourse of the Transnational Media Within the ‘Brussels Bubble’

The Union’s global climate change policy has been widely seen as an expression of its normative power, where it is committed to act through multilateral frameworks in order to tackle the effects of changes in the climate and safeguard the future of people around the world. Internally, the EU’s approach to climate change is complemented by high levels of support from citizens. This article explores another internal source of support for the EU’s leadership in global climate change policy, namely the media. The focus here is on the transnational media’s reporting and coverage of the Copenhagen summit, which is widely considered to be one of the key points in the development of global climate change policy. The article shows that within the ‘Brussels bubble,’ the transnational media supported through its reporting the EU’s ambitious agenda in global climate change policy around the time of the Copenhagen summit.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' RESPONSE TO THE CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM UNDER IMPERFECT INFORMATION AND TRANSACTION COSTS

Developing countries are struggling for finding resources to finance their adaptation to or mitigation of the effects of climate change. In that spirit, the Copenhagen summit, the fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP15) can be seen as a success since it ended with an important promise of creation of a common fund of $US 100 billions per year over the period 2013–2020 to help poor and emerging countries to support adoption of costly but eco-friendly technologies. However, implementation of former instruments shows mixed results. In this paper, we show that transaction costs effect dominates asymmetric information effect in impeding some developing countries to benefit from the clean development mechanism, one of the instruments of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Thus environmental instruments may be useless if they are not supplemented by policies to reduce transaction costs in the host countries.

British press attitudes towards the EU’s global presence: From the Russian-Georgian War to the 2009 Copenhagen Summit

This article surveys the way in which British print media have presented the European Union (EU)’s global presence in the international arena by analysing two case studies which reflect two very distinctive areas of EU foreign policy: global climate change policy and the policy towards Russia. It employs frame analysis, allowing for the identification of the way in which the discourse of the press was categorized around a series of central opinions and ideas. Frames underscore the connections made by journalists between different events, policies or phenomena and their possible interpretations. The analysis highlights that acting through the common framework of the EU rather than unilaterally was a strategy preferred by the British press. These findings are in stark contrast with the deep Euroscepticism which characterizes press attitudes towards most policy areas, and is often considered to be rooted in the British political culture, media system, public opinion or the longstanding tradition of viewing the European continent as the other.