I just walked past a television set in the middle of Copenhagen’s Bella Center, where the UN climate negotiations are taking place. There was a small crowd gathered around the television screen watching president Obama hold a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. The two were speaking, of course, to the two countries’ growing relationship and the steps they would be taking towards a more common future. I only caught a brief clip of the news conference, but it was the clip in which Obama was speaking to the threat of climate change and how we must move forward swiftly. I couldn’t help but think that Obama only had to look to the Norwegian prime minister to his left to see how to move forward.
There have been a lot of questions about whether Obama deserves to win the Nobel Peace Prize right now. The Nobel committee seems confident that such an award can lend the global political will needed to transcend politics as usual. I can think of no other place more essential to validating this confidence than here in Copenhagen. By engaging in the global dialog happening in these halls and spending the political capital granted by the Nobel prize Obama needs to spur along a real deal, with real targets – 40% emission reductions by 2020, real money – $200 billion for developing countries by 2020, and real teeth – a legally-binding treaty.
Coming to Copenhagen with the intention of achieving a real deal, not just a real long speech will save 100,000’s of lives annually, create a potential springboard into a green jobs revolution, increase global and national security, and unite our world in a common vision for what is not only possible, but necessary.
