Copenhagen Summit Research Articles

The Climate Debate Held Hostage by the G2

Real optimism lies in saying that the next 25,000 years will be very difficult. - Romain GaryA year after the Copenhagen Summit, the Cancun Conference (29 November-11 December 2010) showed that, despite some progress, nothing decisive will happen in facing up to change without the engagement of the United States as well as the Peo- ple's Republic of China. In the arena, as in so many others, the G2 has in fact emerged as a global axis, and countless difficulties that punc- tuated attempts to draw up an indispensable post-Kyoto regime from Bali (December 2007) to Tianjin (October 2010) can be seen as so many signs of the general reconfiguration of the post-Cold War international sys- tem - a reconfiguration taking neither the form of unipolarity centred on American hyperpower (dreaded by some) nor of multipolarity (hoped for by others), but rather of Washington-Beijing bipolarity. Of course, the Eu- ropean Union (27-strong) accounts for a quarter of the world's GDP and must play a major role in drawing up a more equitable international order. Unfortunately, divergences among its members on climate, currency, de- fence, and the trans-Atlantic link, among others, keep it from converting its unique institutional structure into political will. As Chris Patten wrote in 2010, Europe is not and will not become a superpower or superstate. Un- like the US we do not matter everywhere. (1)China, on the other hand, has been making its voice heard and extending its influence widely on the international scene. Middle Kingdom is now an indispensable supplier of funds to the United States and to many Third World countries, as well as to Greece and even Portugal. It is no longer the workshop of the world, as it had been dubbed only recently. It has emerged as a development model admired by many governments in the global south. This ascent is illustrated by the fact that some people are now talk- ing about an emerging Beijing Consensus to supplant the now defunct Washington Consensus.This rearrangement of the global chessboard is not without implications for the climate question, which is becoming more serious even as its res- olution is getting complicated. This double effect appears clearly as much in the analysis of historic and prospective links between the economic evo- lution of the G2 members and their greenhouse gas emissions as in the ex- amination of possible solutions leading to a new regime.G2 and CO2In July 2009, during the first US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington, President Barack Obama declared, The relationship be- tween the United States and China will shape the twenty-first century. Of course, all political talk has a performative focus. All the same, the least that can be said about this quote is that it is confirmed by all available in- dicators, be they measures of economic might or (present and future) re- sponsibility for change.The world's top two economies (in PPP terms)Calculated in purchasing power parities (PPP) terms,(2) the US and Chi- nese gross domestic products are the world's two highest. Measured against current exchange rates, China inevitably recedes to third place be- hind Japan, but it is nevertheless ahead of Germany, France, and Britain. (3)This position caps three decades of sustained, exceptional economic growth following the Deng Xiaoping-initiated shift towards capitalism in 1978, further consolidated through stepped-up liberalisation (and open- ing) of the economy after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre(4) (symbolised by Deng's southern tour of 1992). Thus, between 1980 and 2008, that is, in a little over a quarter of a century, the Chinese GDP (PRC and Hong Kong in current exchange rates) leapt from $243.1 billion (2000) to $2,843.9 bil- lion, a nearly 12-fold rise, or a 9.2 percent growth rate. Meanwhile (using the same calculations), the GDP of the United States rose from $5,142. …

China’s “Radicalism at the Center”: Regime Legitimation through Climate Politics and Climate Governance

The article examines whether there is reciprocity between the legitimating effects of China’s regime at home and abroad and how global governance and legitimacy interact in the case of China. This is done through an analysis of Chinese climate politics and China’s engagement in international climate negotiations and governance, especially its behavior during and after the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009 and the Chinese regime’s efforts to legitimate this behavior. While China’s role in international climate governance was disputed at the Copenhagen Summit, China contributed constructively to brokering a deal with significant implications for a new climate governance architecture suiting China’s preferences and being aligned with China’s core interests. China defended the procedural logic of the current global climate governance framework and managed to contain institutional change. Based on Anthony Giddens’ proposition about “radicalism at the centre”, it is argued that China’s national and international discourse on and actions associated with climate change and the international negotiations about the new climate governance architecture seem to be able to reinforce each other and may well have a mutual legitimacy augmenting effect for the ‘radicals at the centre’ of the Chinese regime, provided that they ensure consequential logic through targeted reduction of GHG emissions and a “green transformation” of the economy.

Inside UN Climate Change Negotiations: The Copenhagen Conference

AbstractUN negotiations on climate change entail a fundamental transformation of the global economy and constitute the single most important process in world politics. This is an account of the 2009 Copenhagen summit from the perspective of a government delegate. The article offers a guide to global climate negotiations, tells the story of Copenhagen from behind closed doors, and assesses the current state of global climate governance. It outlines key policy issues under negotiation, the positions and policy preferences of key countries and coalitions, the outcomes of Copenhagen, and achievements and failures in climate negotiations to date. The Copenhagen Accord is a weak agreement designed to mask the political failure of the international community to create a global climate treaty. However, climate policy around the world is making considerable progress. While the UN negotiations process is deadlocked, multilevel climate governance is thriving.

Ensuring STD Through CSR: Idealism versus Realism (A Literature Review)

As climate change gains global attention from events like the summit in Copenhagen held during December of 2009, the need for sustainable tourism is more important than ever (Deale and Barber, 2010). But the query simply arises who will proceed as the role player to make sure sustainable tourism development (STD)? The thinking is till now in infant level so an inclination of ‘pillow-passing’ among its stakeholders is noticed. Corporate bodies have come forward as ‘self-declared’ accountable faction in this endeavor. Now the concern arises, is it myth or really possible to ensure STD through performing corporate social responsibility (CSR)?

Copenhagen Agreement - A New Paradigm of Climate Problem Solving

Copenhagen summit results could be called a failure. This is the failure of UN climate change policy management, but definitely the first step to a new order as well. The article reviews main characteristics of climate policy paradigm shifts. Russian interests in climate change policy and main threats are analyzed. Successful development and implementation of energy savings and energy efficiency policy are necessary and would sufficiently help solving the global climate change problem.

The Greatest Tragedy of All: Regulating the Atmosphere in a Climate of Indecision

Climate change is a serious challenge to our planet. The point of no return will be upon us in 2014 and we are yet to regulate the emission of greenhouse gas. Failure to reach agreement at the 2009 UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen highlighted the difficulties we face in regulating use of the ultimate common pool recourse: our atmosphere. Surrounding these difficulties is the specter of an ideological debate between 'public' and 'private' that is as contentious as ever, and central to this contest is the problem of the free rider. This author will argue that in the long run, a global approach to climate change combining elements of privatization and public control is desirable. This is however proving difficult to achieve. It is contended that in the short term, the polycentric approach advocated by Elinor Ostrom is a desirable alternative and would be of benefit in developing proposals for a long-term solution.

Environmental Kuznets curves, carbon emissions, and public choice

ABSTRACTConcern about global climate change has elicited responses from governments around the world. These responses began with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and have continued with other negotiations, including the 2009 Copenhagen Summit. These negotiations raised important questions about whether countries will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, if so, how the burden of emissions reductions will be shared. To investigate these questions, we utilize environmental Kuznets curves for carbon emissions for the G8 plus five main developing countries. Our findings raise doubts about the feasibility of reducing global carbon emissions and shed light on the different positions taken by countries on the distribution of emissions reductions.

Hacking Away at Sustainability: Science, Ideology and Cynical Blockage

In 2009 sustainability took some major hits. At the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, no agreement was reached over reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Nor was there any discussion about reductions that would keep climate change within “safe limits”. Add to this “climategate” where the hacked emails of climate scientists in the UK revealed problematic data showing declining global temperatures had been deleted to avoid fuelling skepticism, and sustainability appears a stalled project. However, this position has to be reconciled with sustainability being perhaps the most prominent key word of policy initiatives both sides of the Atlantic. We therefore have the paradox of growing emissions levels and a deadlock over agreements to control them, standing alongside the widespread adoption and support of sustainability initiatives. This paper seeks to explain this situation by arguing sustainability is necessarily an ideological project; something we must believe in doing, even in the context of events like “climategate”. By positioning sustainability as ideological, it is therefore necessary to confront the relationship between climate science and ideology, examine the status of ideology in today's post-ideological times and consider the politics of climate change's universal threat to human civilization. As the paper proceeds through these issues, it is suggested that stemming ecological crisis will likely require (re)discovering a mode of politics not currently evident in sustainability debates.

Engaging with Climate Change Means Engaging with Our Human Nature

Engaging with Climate Change Means Engaging with Our Human Nature

Adapting to climate change and climate policy: progress, problems and potentials

This introductory paper discusses tourism's role in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation, at a time when climate change is at the forefront of many political discussions, including the 2009 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, and many business decisions. The development of tourism research in response to climate change in the past 25 years is outlined and limitations are identified. The paper also argues that while growing engagement with the challenge of climate change is evident across the tourism industry, this is still limited and not widespread. The minor role played by tourism interests in the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen is noted and discussed. Questions are raised around the willingness and ability of both the tourism industry and tourists to significantly reduce global emissions. The papers brought together in this Special Issue (Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18.3) both highlight key challenges that tourism faces in its attempts to better understand and manage the problem of climate change, and suggest valuable ways forward.

Col cuore e con la tastiera. Documenti dalla protesta contro il vertice cop15

The images of the cop15’s protest against the summit in Copenhagen have struck many Europeans (the informed ones) for the violence and brutal repression by the Danish Police forces. The mixed and diversified opposition front to the summit has been superficially described and from time to time has been monopolized by ngos like Greenpeace or black bloks, expression wrongly and inappropriately used, due to ignorance, interest and laziness. The documents we are going to present you give a more detailed picture of the world of protest that gathered in Copenhagen. They are testimonies and reflections that have been e-mailed to us; they have been selected and are being offered to you without any alteration: therefore with mistakes, and in their original language.

The Long Way to the Copenhagen Accord: Climate Change Negotiations in 2009

The Copenhagen Summit did not conclude the 2 years negotiation process initiated in Bali in 2007. Ten official meetings among parties were not sufficient to reach a conclusion on the future of the international climate change regime after 2012. This paper summarizes the main issues addressed by the parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol tracks in the course of 2009, the longest year ever for climate change negotiations, and tries to explain the reasons behind the Summit's failures. Furthermore, an overview of the main points of the Copenhagen Accord is provided together with its implications and relation with the UNFCCC process.

Copenhagen Summit - The Legal Implications

The paper deals with the evolution of the international environmental treaty law in the context of climate change. It also brings to light the success and failures of world cooperation in the field of environment. One of the highlights of this piece is the critical analysis of the text of the Copenhagen Accord which was drafted during the recently concluded climate change talks in Denmark. The author feels that though the outcomes of the conference of Parties last year did not result in any significant addition to the preceding treaties, it could form the basis for a legally binding deal at the next COP summit which is to take place in Mexico. One of the major arguments put forth in the paper is that concrete results can be achieved not by successful legal agreements but through change in the way people view the environment. The paper begins by explaining the role played by The United Nations as a quasi legislative body in addressing and formulating laws in the international community. It focuses on the legal order of the United Nations. Then it moves ahead and evaluates the 2 major treaties negotiated by the United Nations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol, 1997. It presents the various issues which arose before the UN international forum during the negotiation of these treaties. Then it examines where the Copenhagen deliberations figure in the overall picture of the climate change battle and also critically analyses the text of the Copenhagen Accord, finally the author gives some suggestions as to how the work of these treaties can be made more useful and concludes with a reminder that only an internal change can bring about a meaningful difference.

SURVIVAL IN A CHANGING WORLD

![Figure][1] In August 2009, the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) held its 36th Congress in Kyoto in the same convention centre where the historic Kyoto Protocol was drawn up 12 years earlier. The symbolism of this coincidence was not missed by Malcolm Gordon, the Chair of

CLIMATE CHANGE: Copenhagen Summit

Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical SeriesVolume 46, Issue 12 p. 18507A-18508C CLIMATE CHANGE: Copenhagen Summit First published: 09 February 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6346.2010.03001.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue12February 2010Pages 18507A-18508C RelatedInformation

Renewables forge ahead

The outlook is still positive for renewable energy despite the failure of the Copenhagen summit to agree binding carbon emissions, E&T E&Tinvestigates.

Poverty Alleviation and Employment Scenario in Nigeria

IntroductionGlobal ContextThe most challenging development issues confronting African countries with the advent of this millennium are poverty and employment. These issues have therefore occupied prime spots today in each African country's development agenda. The global response to the employment poverty challenge which started in the 90s has been sustained. Poverty and employment crisis are serious issues affecting developing economies.The World Bank Development Report (1990) on Poverty stated that 'the most pressing issue facing the developing community is how to reduce poverty'. The World Bank Development Report (2000/2001), attacking poverty stated that poverty amidst plenty is the World's greatest challenge.The menace of poverty and employment though global, is the most devastating in Africa. Human conditions in most of the African countries have greatly deteriorated, particularly during the last decade. Real disposable incomes have declined steeply, malnutrition rates have risen sharply, food production has hardly kept pace with population growth, and the quantity and quality of health and education services have also deteriorated. The present trend of socio-economic conditions in the world needs to be redressed towards better development plans as the twentyfirst century begins hence policies and programmes aimed at addressing this double headed hydra must be reviewed by relevant bodies. Although what constitutes development is debatable (Ohiorhenuan, 1984), its core element is the continuous promotion of the welfare and standard of living of the people.With the Social Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, United Nations development agencies have gradually reviewed their programmes in response to the challenge of global employment and poverty crisis. As a follow up to the Summit eight sets of millennium development goals (MDGs) were identified. These were to: eradicate extreme hunger and poverty; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop global partnership for development. The various UN agencies have since been working on their respective programmes to meet the 18 targets as captured by 40 indicators of achievement.The International Labour Organization (ILO) in pursuit of its mandates on employment and poverty issues have taken many initiatives to follow up on various post-Copenhagen Summit and related agenda. It has for instance: (1) launched the Decent Work Agenda (2) given strong support to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which will shape the course of gender equality and the role of women in the twenty-first century by launching 'More and Better Jobs for Women' as the focus of its technical cooperation and programmes, and (3) given support for Africa's employment and poverty agenda through initiating the 'Jobs in Africa (JIA) programme (1998-2001)' and elaborating this support presently through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).However, within the African continent the institutional response to the challenge of poverty emerged by the convening of the erstwhile organization of Africa unity heads of state and government's ministerial conference on employment and poverty reduction following the launching of new partnership for Africa's development (NEPAD) in 2001. Since then, series of OAU (AU) ministerial conferences have been held on 'Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa' at various locations and times. Public policies consist of actions taken to achieve certain goals (Gulhati, 1990). If development plan is to be effective, they should be focused on a specific target population. Since the benefit of general development policies take long time to trickle down to the poor, a development plan to be effective, they should be focused on a specific target identified as a variety of income generating activities, many of which are of recent origin and reflect the state of unemployment/underemployment in the population. …

Deadlocks of International Climate Policy—An Assessment of the Copenhagen Climate Summit

AbstractThis article analyses the negotiations on the future of the international climate regime at the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. It also discusses key issues in the ongoing business of implementing the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. The article lays out the main issues at stake in the negotiations, contrasts divergences in interests amongst negotiating parties, and summarises the results achieved in Copenhagen. The report discusses these results in detail and concludes with an outlook on how the challenges ahead could be overcome.

Bob's Bit

Production schedules dictate that I am writing these thoughts during the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.

The Impact of Foreign Macroeconomic News on Financial Markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland

In this paper, we investigate the effects of euro area and US macroeconomic news on financial markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (CEEC-3) from 1999 to 2006. Using a GARCH model, we examine the impact of news on daily returns of three-month interest rates, stock market indices, exchange rates versus the euro, and the US dollar. First, both US and European macroeconomic news has a significant impact on CEEC-3 financial markets. Second, the process of European integration is accompanied by an increasing importance of euro area news relative to US news. Third, there are country-specific differences: for example, the Czech stock market is relatively more affected by foreign news since the Copenhagen Summit in December 2002. In general, our results support the hypothesis of a deepening euro area influence on the CEEC-3 over time and a corresponding reduction in the relative importance of US shocks.