Denmark stirs the climate change pot

Denmark spurs creative thinking on climate change. The country is taking its role as host of the December, 2009 climate summit very seriously and is currently sponsoring numerous conferences and other activities.

At the recent “Beyond Kyoto” conference in Århus, Denmark, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the doyenne of sustainable development, called for ambitious greenhouse gas targets and a climate deal that includes reductions for some developing countries. She declared “failure is not an option”.

The report from the Århus conference makes seven recommendations for global climate change policy, which emphasize the importance of public participation, innovative technology, and the role of the private sector in achieving the deep reductions in emissions that will be necessary. The recommendations highlight two issues often swept to the side – the need for biodiversity to be an integrated part of the general climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, and the particular fragility of the Arctic region in relation to global warming.

Following the Århus Conference, the University of Copenhagen sponsored a moot negotiation between law students from developed and industrialized countries that highlighted the very real issues of developing country targets, sectoral policies, and financial transfers to developing countries for low-carbon energy development and adaptation to harmful climate change impacts. A report from the team of Berkeley Law students who participated is here.

Scientists meeting the following week in Copenhagen emphasized the extreme urgency of acting now and making deep cuts in emissions.  The “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions” congress, attended by more than 2,500 delegates from nearly 80 countries, concluded that there is “significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.”  They advised:

“Reducing inertia in social and economic systems; building on a growing public desire for governments to act on climate change; removing implicit and explicit subsidies; reducing the influence of vested interests that increase emissions and reduce resilience; enabling the shifts from ineffective governance and weak institutions to innovative leadership in government, the private sector and civil society; and engaging society in the transition to norms and practices that foster sustainability.”

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