What happened at Copenhagen?
As the only body in the world that can bring nations together to give them a say in affairs of vital interest to them all, the United Nations convened the Climate Change Conference from the 7th to the 18th of this month. Those of us who are not up-to-date with the ecological debate may have found it all a bit confusing, or taken sides as we do at soccer matches.
It was played out like a drama of rich versus poor nations, industrial versus non-industrial countries, 1.5 versus 2 degrees, depending on which TV or radio station or newspaper was keeping us “informed.” But what really happened there? Was it a success? What is the Church’s position?
Every schoolchild can now tell you that “global warming” is caused by “greenhouse gases” accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere and trapping in the heat of the earth. These gases have been emitted in ever-increasing amounts since the West’s industrial revolution. The slowly-rising temperature of the Earth affects climate and causes disastrous weather “events” across the world. Rainfall is particularly affected, causing droughts and flooding in unpredictable severity around the globe. The trapped heat also causes ice caps to melt, raising sea levels and threatening small island nations and large coastal cities with flooding.
The sceptics and denialists received very little airtime at Copenhagen. Every country in the world now agrees that climate change will have disastrous effects in the next 50 years. This raises the multibillion dollar question of who is going to pay to clean up the mess, and stem the tide of global warming? Industries will have to stop spewing pollution into the atmosphere. This will mean heavy investment in cleaner technologies. Non-industrialised countries will never be able to “develop” the way the industrialised countries have. This will potentially cost them lost profits.
From the beginning, the stumbling block was money: It is obviously in the world’s interest to keep global warming to a minimum. The major question is: how much can we afford to let the earth heat up? Island nations in particluar were demanding that the increase in temperature be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as opposed to the 2 degrees proposed by more industrial countries. The more concerted the effort to limit global warming, the more expensive it will be.
In the final Copenhagen Accord, achieved after all-night negotiations, all the countries agree that climate change is a global threat and that international cooperation is urgently required to help those countries most at risk. Each country will set its own emission-reduction targets for 2020. This is a fairly weak set of conclusions for such a hyped conference, and many people were justifiably disappointed at the final outcome. However, insiders at the UN regard it as a limited success - a significant step forward, on which much more work needs to be done.
The Vatican’s contribution at the conference said: “There is an inseparable link between the protection of creation, education and an ethical approach to the economy and development.” This link needs to be understood so that economies do not become the driving force of all human activity to the detriment of the planet and human wellbeing.
The Church’s delegation to the conference also stated that “Environment and climate change entail a shared responsibility toward all humanity, especially the poor and future generations.” We have to take this responsibility seriously in our homes, our work and our leisure activities. Copenhagen has shown us that we can’t leave it to governments and big business to carry out this responsibility for us.
