For decades, people of Uttar Pradesh, whose population is more than half that of the United States, have been witnessing erratic weather, including increasingly intense rainfall over short periods of time.
The rain, combined with heavy mountain run-off from nearby Nepal, which is also seeing heavier-than-usual rains, has inundated villages, towns and cities in the region.
Such floods have destroyed homes, crops and livestock, highlighting the fact that the poorest in countries such as China and India are most at risk from climate change.
While world leaders in Copenhagen argue over who should cut carbon emissions and who should pay, experts say low-cost adaptation methods, partly based on existing community knowledge, could be used to help vulnerable farmers.
In the fields of Manoharchak village, where terms such as "global warming" are unknown, such experiments are bearing fruit, changing the lives of poor farmers who outsmart nature using simple but effective techniques to deal with rising climate variability.
"For the last three years, we have been trying to change our ways to cope with the changing weather," said Hooblal Chauhan, a farmer whose efforts have included diversifying production from wheat and rice to incorporate a wide variety of vegetables.
"I don't know what those big people in foreign countries can do about the weather, but we are doing what we can to help ourselves," said the 55-year-old from Manoharchak, situated 90 km (55 miles) north of the bustling city of Gorakhpur.
IMPROVISATION
Villagers here have raised the level of their roads, built homes with foundations up to 10 feet above ground, elevated community handpumps and created new drainage channels.
Supported by the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group -- a research and advocacy group -- farmers are also planting more flood-tolerant rice, giving them two harvests a year where they once had one, and diversifying from traditional crops to vegetables such as peas, spinach, tomatoes, onions and potatoes.
The diversity of crops, they say, is particularly beneficial when their wheat and rice fail. And the vegetables give them not only a more varied and nutritional diet, but also help in earning an income when excesses are sold.
Increasingly, intense rain means farmers in the region also have to contend with silt deposition from long periods of water-logging in their farms.
But 50-year-old widow Sumitra Chauhan, who grows about 15 different vegetables as well as rice and wheat on her two-acre plot, says she has learned ways to overcome the problem.
"We plant our (vegetable) seedlings in the nurseries and then when the water drains, we transfer them to the land so there are no delays," she said, standing in her lush green plot packed with vegetables including mustard, peas, spinach and tomatoes.
CLIMATE REFUGEES
Farmers have also started using "multi-tier cropping" where vegetables like bottle gourd and bitter gourd are grown on platforms raised about 5-6 feet above the ground and supported by a bamboo frame.
Once the water-logged soil drains, farmers can plant the ground beneath the platforms with vegetables and herbs such as spinach, radish and coriander.
Warmer temperatures and an unusual lack of rain during monsoon periods in eastern Uttar Pradesh have also led to dry spells. To cope, villagers have contributed to buying water pumps for irrigation, lowering their dependence on rain.
According to Oxfam, which is supporting the action group's work in Uttar Pradesh, millions of people in India have been affected by climate-related problems.
Some have been forced into debt. Others have migrated to towns and cities to search for manual labor or have had to sell assets such as livestock to cope.
"It is true that developing countries need a lot of investment to adapt to the effects of climate change, but small and marginal farmers, who are some of India's poorest, can make a start by using simple, cheap techniques to help themselves," said Ekta Bartarya of the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Environment ministers try to unlock climate deal
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, highlighting a spat between top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, said he hoped all nations would seek to raise their offers in the talks.
"China is calling on the United States to do more. The United States is calling on China to do more. I hope that in the coming days everyone will call on everyone to do more," he said.
The ministers were holding informal talks during a one-day break in the December 7-18 meeting involving 190 nations, which will culminate in a summit of world leaders on Thursday and Friday including U.S. President Barack Obama.
"There are still many challenges. There are still many unsolved problems," Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard told reporters. "But as ministers start to arrive there is also the political will."
The talks bring together representatives from rich and poor nations who have been arguing over who is responsible for emissions cuts, how deep they should be, and who should stump up cash to pay for them.
Countries like China and India say the industrialized world must make sharper reductions in greenhouse gas output and provide the poor with more cash to fund a shift to greener growth and adapt to a warmer world.
"An agreement is certainly possible. If all of us trust each other and if we have the courage and conviction, we can still come to a fair, equitable deal in Copenhagen," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, heading into Sunday's sessions.
Richer countries say the developing world's carbon emissions are growing so fast they must sign up for curbs to prevent dangerous levels of warming.
China has said it wants to wrap up a firm deal before Premier Wen Jiabao joins other world leaders at the summit.
"My understanding is that the leaders are coming to celebrate the good outcome of the talks," senior Chinese envoy Su Wei said on Saturday.
DEMONSTRATORS RELEASED
On Sunday, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed over to the U.N.'s de Boer tens of thousands of signatures from around the world calling for climate action.
An afternoon church service was also planned at Copenhagen's Cathedral, with a sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and attended by Danish royalty, followed by a "bell ringing for the climate" in churches around the world.
Police have released all but 13 of nearly 1,000 people detained after a march on Saturday, a police spokesman said.
The march by tens of thousands of people was largely peaceful but violence erupted toward evening when demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to cars.
Some of those detained said they were unfairly held and badly treated by police.
"They arrested us for no reason. We were all peaceful," said Hana Nelson, aged 24, a student from Halifax, Canada, who was released without charges
"China is calling on the United States to do more. The United States is calling on China to do more. I hope that in the coming days everyone will call on everyone to do more," he said.
The ministers were holding informal talks during a one-day break in the December 7-18 meeting involving 190 nations, which will culminate in a summit of world leaders on Thursday and Friday including U.S. President Barack Obama.
"There are still many challenges. There are still many unsolved problems," Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard told reporters. "But as ministers start to arrive there is also the political will."
The talks bring together representatives from rich and poor nations who have been arguing over who is responsible for emissions cuts, how deep they should be, and who should stump up cash to pay for them.
Countries like China and India say the industrialized world must make sharper reductions in greenhouse gas output and provide the poor with more cash to fund a shift to greener growth and adapt to a warmer world.
"An agreement is certainly possible. If all of us trust each other and if we have the courage and conviction, we can still come to a fair, equitable deal in Copenhagen," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, heading into Sunday's sessions.
Richer countries say the developing world's carbon emissions are growing so fast they must sign up for curbs to prevent dangerous levels of warming.
China has said it wants to wrap up a firm deal before Premier Wen Jiabao joins other world leaders at the summit.
"My understanding is that the leaders are coming to celebrate the good outcome of the talks," senior Chinese envoy Su Wei said on Saturday.
DEMONSTRATORS RELEASED
On Sunday, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed over to the U.N.'s de Boer tens of thousands of signatures from around the world calling for climate action.
An afternoon church service was also planned at Copenhagen's Cathedral, with a sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and attended by Danish royalty, followed by a "bell ringing for the climate" in churches around the world.
Police have released all but 13 of nearly 1,000 people detained after a march on Saturday, a police spokesman said.
The march by tens of thousands of people was largely peaceful but violence erupted toward evening when demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to cars.
Some of those detained said they were unfairly held and badly treated by police.
"They arrested us for no reason. We were all peaceful," said Hana Nelson, aged 24, a student from Halifax, Canada, who was released without charges
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Climate talks to go closed doors, or over dinner
If a climate deal is to be done, it is more likely to be thrashed out over coffee in the corridor, a glass of wine at dinner or a stroll along Copenhagen's cobbled downtown streets than in the vast conference hall.
Personal chemistry and friendships among opposing delegates are critical in complex negotiations, and could be particularly crucial this weekend when ministers from key countries try to break through the deadlocks in talks on a global accord to control greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
The ministers were coming earlier than planned to prepare the ground for a summit of 110 leaders at the end of the week. The aim is to tie up a political deal laying the outlines of a new climate change pact that will be finished next year.
The Copenhagen conference caps two years of negotiations among 192 countries. They have convened for formal talks nearly a dozen times, usually getting nowhere. But their leaders or top negotiators have met even more often in informal settings — touring a South African wildlife park, walking on an Argentinian glacier or relaxing near the fjords of Greenland.
Those weeks of relaxed conversations, discussions of families and hobbies alongside climate issues and public policy, swapping suits for jeans, are invaluable in building relationships and trust that can translate in the future into diplomatic breakthroughs.
Two of the bitterest foes in the negotiations, U.S. special envoy Todd Stern and Chinese negotiator Xie Zhenhua are known to meet regularly and cordially, even though they communicate through an interpreter.
"He's a very personable guy," Barbara Finamore, China program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says of Xie. She says the two men have an understanding that goes deeper than their public positions.
The Copenhagen conference, like all U.N. climate talks before, are conducted on many levels, from the open assemblies attended by all nations to small rooms where a few delegates haggle in quiet.
Public negotiating sessions often are contentious rounds of finger-pointing couched in diplomatic niceties. Poor countries say they will be the first to suffer from global warming caused by the rich industrial world. Wealthy nations say developing countries are not doing enough to help solve the problem.
The nations are grouped in various alliances with common interests, the largest known as the G-77 plus China which actually is comprised of some 135 countries. The G-77 is joined by the European Union, the Small Island States, the Least Developed Countries and the Umbrella Group, which lumps the United States with Australia, Canada and Japan.
It's a convenient way to save time and repetition, with an appointed spokesman stating an agreed position at the opening or closing of a plenary.
The plenary sessions are not for negotiation. It's where nations stake out positions, posture for their home constituency and show allegiance to their allies. Delegates say most of the progress is hammered out behind the scenes.
"The more intimate the setting, the easier it is to talk," said Jurgen Lefevere, a veteran European climate negotiator. "It's amazing how much depends on who bumps into who in the corridor."
Plenary sessions break up into smaller "contact groups" to deal with specific issues. When talks bog down, the chairman may assign a "friend of the chair" to pull the key players into a side room and thrash it out. If that fails, the problem will be put aside for later. If it's a major issue, it will wait be passed up to the ministers or heads of government.
The formal and informal streams reinforce each other, Lefevere said.
In smaller groups negotiators can probe, parry and question. They explore how far the other side can relent and where the threshold of pain is, said Lefevere, a Belgian diplomat representing the European Commission.
One-on-one contact can be over coffee at the conference center or over a glass of wine and a good dinner.
This is when delegates exchange hard information or privately swap internal documents and proposals, Lefevere said. "You get the nuances and subtleties that you can't convey in a big meeting."
But even with friends, he said, "you have to be careful how to show the bottom line."
Personal chemistry and friendships among opposing delegates are critical in complex negotiations, and could be particularly crucial this weekend when ministers from key countries try to break through the deadlocks in talks on a global accord to control greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
The ministers were coming earlier than planned to prepare the ground for a summit of 110 leaders at the end of the week. The aim is to tie up a political deal laying the outlines of a new climate change pact that will be finished next year.
The Copenhagen conference caps two years of negotiations among 192 countries. They have convened for formal talks nearly a dozen times, usually getting nowhere. But their leaders or top negotiators have met even more often in informal settings — touring a South African wildlife park, walking on an Argentinian glacier or relaxing near the fjords of Greenland.
Those weeks of relaxed conversations, discussions of families and hobbies alongside climate issues and public policy, swapping suits for jeans, are invaluable in building relationships and trust that can translate in the future into diplomatic breakthroughs.
Two of the bitterest foes in the negotiations, U.S. special envoy Todd Stern and Chinese negotiator Xie Zhenhua are known to meet regularly and cordially, even though they communicate through an interpreter.
"He's a very personable guy," Barbara Finamore, China program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says of Xie. She says the two men have an understanding that goes deeper than their public positions.
The Copenhagen conference, like all U.N. climate talks before, are conducted on many levels, from the open assemblies attended by all nations to small rooms where a few delegates haggle in quiet.
Public negotiating sessions often are contentious rounds of finger-pointing couched in diplomatic niceties. Poor countries say they will be the first to suffer from global warming caused by the rich industrial world. Wealthy nations say developing countries are not doing enough to help solve the problem.
The nations are grouped in various alliances with common interests, the largest known as the G-77 plus China which actually is comprised of some 135 countries. The G-77 is joined by the European Union, the Small Island States, the Least Developed Countries and the Umbrella Group, which lumps the United States with Australia, Canada and Japan.
It's a convenient way to save time and repetition, with an appointed spokesman stating an agreed position at the opening or closing of a plenary.
The plenary sessions are not for negotiation. It's where nations stake out positions, posture for their home constituency and show allegiance to their allies. Delegates say most of the progress is hammered out behind the scenes.
"The more intimate the setting, the easier it is to talk," said Jurgen Lefevere, a veteran European climate negotiator. "It's amazing how much depends on who bumps into who in the corridor."
Plenary sessions break up into smaller "contact groups" to deal with specific issues. When talks bog down, the chairman may assign a "friend of the chair" to pull the key players into a side room and thrash it out. If that fails, the problem will be put aside for later. If it's a major issue, it will wait be passed up to the ministers or heads of government.
The formal and informal streams reinforce each other, Lefevere said.
In smaller groups negotiators can probe, parry and question. They explore how far the other side can relent and where the threshold of pain is, said Lefevere, a Belgian diplomat representing the European Commission.
One-on-one contact can be over coffee at the conference center or over a glass of wine and a good dinner.
This is when delegates exchange hard information or privately swap internal documents and proposals, Lefevere said. "You get the nuances and subtleties that you can't convey in a big meeting."
But even with friends, he said, "you have to be careful how to show the bottom line."
How real is US climate of change?
Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize last Thursday, US President Barack Obama urged leaders to confront climate change. But will he deliver at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen? Caroline Muscat put the question to US Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec.
His charm and persuasive abilities not only won Mr Obama the US Presidency, it drew back to America admiration from a world increasingly hostile towards the foreign policies of George W. Bush.
A global issue the former president ignored was climate change - a challenge the US Ambassador says President Obama has now taken on. But the road ahead is full of potholes.
"We've been slow to come to the table... but now we're unequivocal in our understanding that climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed thoroughly and equitably with respect to all of the nations in the world," says Mr Kmiec.
He adds the President is prepared to seek a legally binding agreement and will urge that upon the leaders present in Copenhagen. At a minimum, President Obama will seek immediate operational steps.
But the package the US has presented at Copenhagen was less than expected from the country that has the highest level of CO2 emissions per capita, and therefore the biggest contributor to climate change. Developing countries, which are already feeling the effects of global warming, say the US must carry its historical responsibility.
Mr Kmiec accepts the country's contribution to the problem: "Yes, the US is largely responsible for a great deal of greenhouse gases in the world that have led to this consequence. We have to own up to that."
Mr Obama offered "provisional" targets for emissions cuts - less than four per cent of what US emissions were in 1990, to be achieved by 2020. By comparison, within the same timeframe, the EU has committed to reducing its emissions by a minimum of 20 per cent, Britain alone pledging a 34 per cent cut, while Japan has promised a 25 per cent reduction.
Mr Kmiec thinks the US's long-term projections are comparable to those of other rich nations. The positions are much closer now than they were under the previous US administration, he says.
The US pledges have still to pass the test at the Senate to gain legislative force and the Senate remains deeply divided on the issue but the Ambassador is confident the US President's persuasive abilities will see it through.
He describes the US commitment on climate change as "realistic". The US has adopted a leadership position now but it is "also a position that recognises that we're not alone, that all of the developing nations have rather important and specific obligations that they need to meet, and the developed nations have an obligation to the developing world to mitigate the cost that we've already imposed on the environment".
Poor countries will be the first and hardest hit and the ones least able to cope with the effects of climate change, even if their contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming is negligible. But the promises by rich nations to fund efforts to adapt to climate change have only empty coffers to show. The poorest countries have received the least help from the rich, an analysis by The Guardian revealed.
And the US is being accused of not putting its money where its mouth is - the EU chief climate negotiator said in Copenhagen last Monday that an adaptation fund set up in 2001 had yet to receive a deposit from the US.
When this is put to the country's ambassador, he points to another US commitment to contribute to a $10 billion fund "to get things started". Whether the US will offer more depends on what others will do, Mr Kmiec adds.
"Much of this money will be borrowed from China, and if China is going to be on a path of focusing on economic growth alone, without consideration of environmental responsibility, that's a different question than if China itself is making commitments to environmental targets that are consistent with those the US is making."
China's counter argument is that its contribution to the problem is not equal to that of the US. But the US Ambassador insists China has to redirect some of its robust economic system towards a meaningful environmental target.
The US will give its proportion, Mr Kmiec says, while he admits the Iraq war was a drain on US resources, calling the $10-13 billion-a-month effort "massively wasted expenditure".
By comparison, "the expenditures involved (on climate change) are expenditures in building up, or at least maintaining, the quality of the human environment... that's quite the opposite, in my judgment, of the war on Iraq".
The change in attitude has been recognised internationally. Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Obama, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", has been seen as a means of boosting international climate talks.
It remains to be seen whether, in Copenhagen, the rhetoric will be replaced by the political will necessary to turn promises into action and prevent the human suffering that climate change is already inflicting.
His charm and persuasive abilities not only won Mr Obama the US Presidency, it drew back to America admiration from a world increasingly hostile towards the foreign policies of George W. Bush.
A global issue the former president ignored was climate change - a challenge the US Ambassador says President Obama has now taken on. But the road ahead is full of potholes.
"We've been slow to come to the table... but now we're unequivocal in our understanding that climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed thoroughly and equitably with respect to all of the nations in the world," says Mr Kmiec.
He adds the President is prepared to seek a legally binding agreement and will urge that upon the leaders present in Copenhagen. At a minimum, President Obama will seek immediate operational steps.
But the package the US has presented at Copenhagen was less than expected from the country that has the highest level of CO2 emissions per capita, and therefore the biggest contributor to climate change. Developing countries, which are already feeling the effects of global warming, say the US must carry its historical responsibility.
Mr Kmiec accepts the country's contribution to the problem: "Yes, the US is largely responsible for a great deal of greenhouse gases in the world that have led to this consequence. We have to own up to that."
Mr Obama offered "provisional" targets for emissions cuts - less than four per cent of what US emissions were in 1990, to be achieved by 2020. By comparison, within the same timeframe, the EU has committed to reducing its emissions by a minimum of 20 per cent, Britain alone pledging a 34 per cent cut, while Japan has promised a 25 per cent reduction.
Mr Kmiec thinks the US's long-term projections are comparable to those of other rich nations. The positions are much closer now than they were under the previous US administration, he says.
The US pledges have still to pass the test at the Senate to gain legislative force and the Senate remains deeply divided on the issue but the Ambassador is confident the US President's persuasive abilities will see it through.
He describes the US commitment on climate change as "realistic". The US has adopted a leadership position now but it is "also a position that recognises that we're not alone, that all of the developing nations have rather important and specific obligations that they need to meet, and the developed nations have an obligation to the developing world to mitigate the cost that we've already imposed on the environment".
Poor countries will be the first and hardest hit and the ones least able to cope with the effects of climate change, even if their contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming is negligible. But the promises by rich nations to fund efforts to adapt to climate change have only empty coffers to show. The poorest countries have received the least help from the rich, an analysis by The Guardian revealed.
And the US is being accused of not putting its money where its mouth is - the EU chief climate negotiator said in Copenhagen last Monday that an adaptation fund set up in 2001 had yet to receive a deposit from the US.
When this is put to the country's ambassador, he points to another US commitment to contribute to a $10 billion fund "to get things started". Whether the US will offer more depends on what others will do, Mr Kmiec adds.
"Much of this money will be borrowed from China, and if China is going to be on a path of focusing on economic growth alone, without consideration of environmental responsibility, that's a different question than if China itself is making commitments to environmental targets that are consistent with those the US is making."
China's counter argument is that its contribution to the problem is not equal to that of the US. But the US Ambassador insists China has to redirect some of its robust economic system towards a meaningful environmental target.
The US will give its proportion, Mr Kmiec says, while he admits the Iraq war was a drain on US resources, calling the $10-13 billion-a-month effort "massively wasted expenditure".
By comparison, "the expenditures involved (on climate change) are expenditures in building up, or at least maintaining, the quality of the human environment... that's quite the opposite, in my judgment, of the war on Iraq".
The change in attitude has been recognised internationally. Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Obama, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", has been seen as a means of boosting international climate talks.
It remains to be seen whether, in Copenhagen, the rhetoric will be replaced by the political will necessary to turn promises into action and prevent the human suffering that climate change is already inflicting.
Businesspeople join the ranks of climate treaty proponents
From the legions of environmental Cassandras gathered here for international climate negotiations, an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople.
Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen aside from the official negotiators.
They have blanketed the host Bella Center with company logos and glossy brochures touting business efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An army of chief executives descended on the conference Friday to urge the assembled government officials to curb emissions and unleash a new wave of so-called clean energy investment. On Sunday, Coca-Cola will co-host a business round table here with the World Wildlife Fund.
Some of the executives, including major players in the utility and technology sectors, see massive profit potential in a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and other low-emission energy sources.
Other companies say they are looking for uniformity in the increasingly global economy, where major markets, such as Europe, limit emissions but the United States and most of Asia do not.
Government leaders here say the increased corporate engagement has given new urgency to the negotiations and improved the chances of averting what scientists say could be the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
"This climate problem is too big, and the need for investment is too great, for government to do it alone," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told an overflow crowd Friday.
The big-business side to the talks has angered some climate activists, who decry "green capitalism" and call for massive wealth transfers from the richest nations to developing countries struggling to cope with climate change. One speech Friday at Klimaforum09, a parallel gathering of environmentalists, was titled "Global Warming: the Capitalist Catastrophe and the Eco-Socialist Alternative."
And though increasingly vocal, business leaders remain somewhat divided on climate policy, with groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging "realism" on global efforts and opposing emission limits pending before Congress. Several economic studies funded by business groups have warned this year that emission limits would saddle U.S. companies with higher energy costs, stunting growth.
The chamber said in a news release Friday that its message to climate delegates is "businesses are committed to continuing to improve their environmental stewardship to address climate change . . . [but] any agreement must not undermine economic competitiveness or shed jobs."
When international leaders gathered for the first time in Rio de Janeiro in 1991 to discuss global warming, only a few corporate chiefs joined them, said Norine Kennedy, vice president for energy and environmental affairs at the U.S. Council for International Business. This week, hundreds and perhaps thousands of executives made the trip to Copenhagen.
"Our thinking has evolved as the treaty has evolved, as it has grown into new areas," said Kennedy, whose group represents 300 companies and is pushing for a more active business role in climate negotiations. "We see a larger and larger range of companies -- not just in terms of their sectors, but sizes and nationalities -- participating."
The shift stems from a combination of responsibility and opportunity, said several of the executives who swung through the conference to lobby for an agreement.
"What has changed in the last 10 years is that businesses have understood that to be sustainable is a must, and there is no future without concern for the environment," said Philippe Joubert, president of Paris-based Alstom Power, which operates power plants around the globe and recently opened the world's first pilot-scale plant for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from coal.
Joubert and several other business leaders in Copenhagen said they want the climate talks to yield long-term rules that will set a price on greenhouse gas emissions.
The sentiment, oddly enough, echoes the consensus of oil and gas executives who gathered for a conference in Houston early this year.
"There's one point which the whole energy sector agrees upon, which is the need to make a decision on the future price of carbon," said Peter Brun, senior vice president for government relations at Vestas, the Danish wind company whose blue logo graces the giant turbine spinning outside the Bella Center.
Companies are also watching closely to see whether various pledges to reduce emissions could, at least in the short run, change the dynamics of global supply chains -- by, say, making energy sufficiently cheaper in Cambodia than in China to attract manufacturing across borders.
U.S. companies have raised the issues of energy costs and competitiveness with Locke, the Commerce secretary.
He sat Friday morning for an hourlong chat -- over water, no coffee -- with representatives of Intel, Microsoft, GE, FedEx and two dozen other companies. Locke said the conversation revolved around the opportunities of emission reduction.
If the world keeps cutting emissions and the United States does not follow suit, Locke said the executives told him, those companies "will establish plants in other countries to meet their changing [energy] needs."
Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen aside from the official negotiators.
They have blanketed the host Bella Center with company logos and glossy brochures touting business efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An army of chief executives descended on the conference Friday to urge the assembled government officials to curb emissions and unleash a new wave of so-called clean energy investment. On Sunday, Coca-Cola will co-host a business round table here with the World Wildlife Fund.
Some of the executives, including major players in the utility and technology sectors, see massive profit potential in a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and other low-emission energy sources.
Other companies say they are looking for uniformity in the increasingly global economy, where major markets, such as Europe, limit emissions but the United States and most of Asia do not.
Government leaders here say the increased corporate engagement has given new urgency to the negotiations and improved the chances of averting what scientists say could be the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
"This climate problem is too big, and the need for investment is too great, for government to do it alone," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told an overflow crowd Friday.
The big-business side to the talks has angered some climate activists, who decry "green capitalism" and call for massive wealth transfers from the richest nations to developing countries struggling to cope with climate change. One speech Friday at Klimaforum09, a parallel gathering of environmentalists, was titled "Global Warming: the Capitalist Catastrophe and the Eco-Socialist Alternative."
And though increasingly vocal, business leaders remain somewhat divided on climate policy, with groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging "realism" on global efforts and opposing emission limits pending before Congress. Several economic studies funded by business groups have warned this year that emission limits would saddle U.S. companies with higher energy costs, stunting growth.
The chamber said in a news release Friday that its message to climate delegates is "businesses are committed to continuing to improve their environmental stewardship to address climate change . . . [but] any agreement must not undermine economic competitiveness or shed jobs."
When international leaders gathered for the first time in Rio de Janeiro in 1991 to discuss global warming, only a few corporate chiefs joined them, said Norine Kennedy, vice president for energy and environmental affairs at the U.S. Council for International Business. This week, hundreds and perhaps thousands of executives made the trip to Copenhagen.
"Our thinking has evolved as the treaty has evolved, as it has grown into new areas," said Kennedy, whose group represents 300 companies and is pushing for a more active business role in climate negotiations. "We see a larger and larger range of companies -- not just in terms of their sectors, but sizes and nationalities -- participating."
The shift stems from a combination of responsibility and opportunity, said several of the executives who swung through the conference to lobby for an agreement.
"What has changed in the last 10 years is that businesses have understood that to be sustainable is a must, and there is no future without concern for the environment," said Philippe Joubert, president of Paris-based Alstom Power, which operates power plants around the globe and recently opened the world's first pilot-scale plant for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from coal.
Joubert and several other business leaders in Copenhagen said they want the climate talks to yield long-term rules that will set a price on greenhouse gas emissions.
The sentiment, oddly enough, echoes the consensus of oil and gas executives who gathered for a conference in Houston early this year.
"There's one point which the whole energy sector agrees upon, which is the need to make a decision on the future price of carbon," said Peter Brun, senior vice president for government relations at Vestas, the Danish wind company whose blue logo graces the giant turbine spinning outside the Bella Center.
Companies are also watching closely to see whether various pledges to reduce emissions could, at least in the short run, change the dynamics of global supply chains -- by, say, making energy sufficiently cheaper in Cambodia than in China to attract manufacturing across borders.
U.S. companies have raised the issues of energy costs and competitiveness with Locke, the Commerce secretary.
He sat Friday morning for an hourlong chat -- over water, no coffee -- with representatives of Intel, Microsoft, GE, FedEx and two dozen other companies. Locke said the conversation revolved around the opportunities of emission reduction.
If the world keeps cutting emissions and the United States does not follow suit, Locke said the executives told him, those companies "will establish plants in other countries to meet their changing [energy] needs."
Climate change protesters march in Copenhagen
Thousands of people are marching through Copenhagen as part of global protests to demand action from leaders at UN climate talks there.
Security has been stepped up along the four-mile (6km) route, with extra police on the streets and security fences put up around some buildings. Correspondents say the protest has been mostly peaceful although there have been some arrests.
Marches were also held in Australia, Hong Kong, Jakarta and the Philippines.
More than 50 protesters were arrested in Copenhagen following a smaller demonstration on Friday.
Organisers said they expected between 60,000 and 80,000 protesters from around the world to join Saturday's march across the city to the conference centre where where and ministers are meeting.
Danish police told AFP news agency they estimated some 30,000 people had gathered at a rally before the march.
The BBC's Matt McGrath in Copenhagen says the crowd is colourful, with some protesters arriving dressed as polar bears and others draped in blue and green to show their support for the planet.
Activists are arguing for an ambitious, legally binding agreement on emissions cuts to be signed by world leaders at the summit's conclusion at the end of next week.
"This is the right time to shout out and let leaders know this is serious business for us all. Lets hope they listen," Lin Che, a 28-year-old student from Taiwan, told Reuters news agency.
A number of famous figures were due to join the protest, among them Bollywood actor Rahul Bose, model and photographer Helena Christensen and former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson.
'Safe climate'
In Australia, where events were held as part of the country's fifth Walk Against Warming, the largest protest was held in Melbourne.
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Organisers said aerial photographs had been taken and would be sent to delegates at the talks in Copenhagen.
In Adelaide, activist James Dannenberg told state radio: "We want [world leaders] to bring home a treaty, we want them to stand by the Pacific and our neighbours there.
"And we want them to deliver and ensure a safe climate future for us all."
Thousands of demonstrators also gathered in front of Australia's parliament house in the capital, Canberra.
On Friday, European Union leaders agreed a three-year deal to pay 7.2bn euros (£6.5bn; $10.6bn) to help poorer nations cope with climate change.
But leaders of developing countries and some aid agencies described the sum offered by the EU as inadequate.
Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, officials released a draft text of a possible final deal in which rich countries are asked to raise their pledges on greenhouse gas emissions cuts.
Rich nations slam climate draft, thousands protest
Industrial countries criticized a draft global warming pact Saturday for not making stronger demands on major developing countries as tens of thousands of banner-waving protesters demanding "climate justice" marched toward the U.N. conference.
Initial reaction to the negotiating text submitted Friday underscored the split between the U.S.-led wealthy countries and countries still struggling to overcome poverty and catch up with the modern world.
The tightly focused document was meant to lay out the crunch themes for environment ministers to wrestle with as they prepare for a summit of some 110 heads of state and government at the end of next week.
U.S. delegate Jonathan Pershing said the draft failed to address the contentious issue of carbon emissions by emerging economies.
"The current draft didn't work in terms of where it is headed," Pershing said in the plenary, supported by the European Union, Japan and Norway.
But the EU also directed criticism at the U.S., insisting it could make greater commitments to push the talks forward without stretching the legislation pending in Congress. Both the U.S. and China should be legally bound to keep whatever promises they make, said Swedish Environment Minister Anders Carlgren.
Environment ministers started arriving in the Danish capital Saturday for informal talks before world leaders join the summit late next week.
On the chilly streets outside, police assigned extra squads to watch protesters marching toward the suburban conference center to demand that leaders act now to fight climate change.
Police estimated their numbers at 25,000, while organizers said as many as 100,000 had joined the march from downtown Copenhagen, waving banners that read "Nature doesn't compromise" and "Climate Justice Now."
Danish supermodel Helena Christensen was in the crowd. "They will be very bad politicians if they do not hear us by now," she said about the policy-makers negotiating in Copenhagen.
The protest was peaceful but police said they had detained 19 people, mainly for breaking Denmark's strict laws against carrying pocket knives or wearing masks during demonstrations.
Environmental activists also rallied in Asia to increase the pressure on climate negotiators in Copenhagen.
Thousands marched in a "Walk Against Warming" in major cities acrosss Australia and about 200 Filipino activists staged a festive rally in Manila to mark the Global Day of Action on climate change. Dozens of Indonesian environmental activists rallied in front of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
The draft distributed to the 192-nation conference set no firm figures on financing or on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
It said all countries together should reduce emissions by a range of 50 percent to 95 percent by 2050, and rich countries should cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, in both cases using 1990 as the baseline year.
The draft continues the system for industrial countries set up in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by which they are legally bound to targets for emission reductions and face penalties if they fall short. It makes no similar requirements of developing countries like China and India, which have pledged to reduce the growth rate of emissions but reject the notion of turning those voluntary pledges into legal commitments.
So far, industrial nations' pledges to cut emissions have amounted to far less than the minimum.
The draft also left open the form of the agreement — whether it will be a legal document or a political declaration.
Ian Fry, the representative of the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu, made an emotional appeal for the strongest format, one that would legally bind all nations to commitments to control carbon emissions.
"I woke up this morning crying, and that's not easy for a grown man to admit," Fry said, choking as he spoke in the plenary crowded with hundreds of delegates. "The fate of my country rests in your hands."
European Union leaders announced in Brussels this week after two days of tough talks that they would commit $3.6 billion (euro2.4 billion) a year until 2012 to a short-term fund for poor countries. Most of this money came from Britain, France and Germany. Many cash-strapped former East bloc countries balked at donating but eventually all gave at least a token amount to preserve the 27-nation bloc's unity.
Still unknown is how much the wealthier nations, such as the U.S. and Japan, will contribute
Initial reaction to the negotiating text submitted Friday underscored the split between the U.S.-led wealthy countries and countries still struggling to overcome poverty and catch up with the modern world.
The tightly focused document was meant to lay out the crunch themes for environment ministers to wrestle with as they prepare for a summit of some 110 heads of state and government at the end of next week.
U.S. delegate Jonathan Pershing said the draft failed to address the contentious issue of carbon emissions by emerging economies.
"The current draft didn't work in terms of where it is headed," Pershing said in the plenary, supported by the European Union, Japan and Norway.
But the EU also directed criticism at the U.S., insisting it could make greater commitments to push the talks forward without stretching the legislation pending in Congress. Both the U.S. and China should be legally bound to keep whatever promises they make, said Swedish Environment Minister Anders Carlgren.
Environment ministers started arriving in the Danish capital Saturday for informal talks before world leaders join the summit late next week.
On the chilly streets outside, police assigned extra squads to watch protesters marching toward the suburban conference center to demand that leaders act now to fight climate change.
Police estimated their numbers at 25,000, while organizers said as many as 100,000 had joined the march from downtown Copenhagen, waving banners that read "Nature doesn't compromise" and "Climate Justice Now."
Danish supermodel Helena Christensen was in the crowd. "They will be very bad politicians if they do not hear us by now," she said about the policy-makers negotiating in Copenhagen.
The protest was peaceful but police said they had detained 19 people, mainly for breaking Denmark's strict laws against carrying pocket knives or wearing masks during demonstrations.
Environmental activists also rallied in Asia to increase the pressure on climate negotiators in Copenhagen.
Thousands marched in a "Walk Against Warming" in major cities acrosss Australia and about 200 Filipino activists staged a festive rally in Manila to mark the Global Day of Action on climate change. Dozens of Indonesian environmental activists rallied in front of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
The draft distributed to the 192-nation conference set no firm figures on financing or on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
It said all countries together should reduce emissions by a range of 50 percent to 95 percent by 2050, and rich countries should cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, in both cases using 1990 as the baseline year.
The draft continues the system for industrial countries set up in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by which they are legally bound to targets for emission reductions and face penalties if they fall short. It makes no similar requirements of developing countries like China and India, which have pledged to reduce the growth rate of emissions but reject the notion of turning those voluntary pledges into legal commitments.
So far, industrial nations' pledges to cut emissions have amounted to far less than the minimum.
The draft also left open the form of the agreement — whether it will be a legal document or a political declaration.
Ian Fry, the representative of the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu, made an emotional appeal for the strongest format, one that would legally bind all nations to commitments to control carbon emissions.
"I woke up this morning crying, and that's not easy for a grown man to admit," Fry said, choking as he spoke in the plenary crowded with hundreds of delegates. "The fate of my country rests in your hands."
European Union leaders announced in Brussels this week after two days of tough talks that they would commit $3.6 billion (euro2.4 billion) a year until 2012 to a short-term fund for poor countries. Most of this money came from Britain, France and Germany. Many cash-strapped former East bloc countries balked at donating but eventually all gave at least a token amount to preserve the 27-nation bloc's unity.
Still unknown is how much the wealthier nations, such as the U.S. and Japan, will contribute
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