It’s Getting Hot In Here

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Ben Powless -   Zoë Caron -   Juan Hoffmaister -   Matthew Carroll -   Liz McDowell -   Caroline Howe

Note: Matt’s incredible description of the beginning of this session are fabulous. You can check out our live notes, or our summary as it follows here.

11:53 Debating the “Noting” of Copenhagen Accord

Currently, the parties are debating whether or not to “note” the Copenhagen Accord. This means that the document we’ve been debating for 10 hours will be seen as a document that any delegation could sign onto. So, we’re proposing countries sign on if they agree with it. It couldn’t be agreed to because of the process by which it was created. I’m confused. And sad. There’s not much to write, because we’re lost on what part of our future is disappearing right now.

10:25 Meeting Begins Again

After more than two hours, the session began again, chaired by those who are slightly less exhausted. The plenary hall has no windows, so its hard to tell if any time has passed at all.

7:47 Imperfect, but a Beginning?

Gabon used the message, “Every human endeavor and creation is imperfect, but we also have to continue to fashion the stone, to sculpt because tomorrow will be better than today.” The consensus is generally emerging that this document (a non legally-binding framework) may be a way for things to move to the next phase of negotiations. It is imperfect, but

7:38 Saudi Arabia calls this the worst plenary ever seen

He emphasizes the timing, the facilitation, the criticisms from one nation to another – and this is only for a NON legally-binding document.

7:35 Lesotho Lightens the Air With a Merry Christmas

7:30 Alarm Clocks Start Ringing

Some LDCs are leaving, or leaving for breakfast, while  the members of civil society are sleeping all across the floor and in their chairs! The President looks exhausted, and confused about how exactly he can move forward. This may be negotiation by exhaustion.

7:28 Sudan & Lesotho Speak as the LDCs Slowly Leave

It’s getting later and later in the day (though the sun hasn’t yet risen in Copenhagen!), and more delegates are getting desperate to get on their planes.

7:18 Venezuela Calls out on the Trillions Spent on War

There is money. We’re not begging for money, were looking to save their own lives. 1.5 degrees, 350 ppm — we’re not looking for 30 billion. There are many major issues that are not resolved in any of the working groups, and couldn’t have been resolved in one document. Keep your checkbooks in your pockets, and in your government – work to address the ideas of principles. You can’t purchase principles.

After two weeks of work, and after beginning a meeting at 3 am while the developed nations held press events to talk about the “COP15 Deal”, we are only with this document for 4 hours. We hope that the Presidency can demonstrate its dignity. Dignity and principles don’t have a pricetag.

7:03 Is Short- or Long-Term Finance Blackmail?

Cuba said, “I wish that no nations had offered money, because it seems to me like blackmail. We know that the money won’t come whether there is a document or not.” Norway responded a few speakers later by saying, “Norway is one of the only countries that is meeting its ODA commitment of .5 % of GDP. How can I go back to my people in Norway and call it a bribe of developing nations and encourage them to pay more?”

6:50 The Circus Begins

It was one of the craziest moments of COP15 when the President of COP asked “I am not familiar with the processes here.”

6:15 France Supports 1.5 Degrees C

Brice Lalonde said that France would sign this declaration, saying, “We defended the inclusion of 1.5 degrees Celsius because the islands of Maldives should be heard here.” He went on to emphasize that the “Friends of the Chair” group that drafted this paper was done in good faith to break the deadlock and the imminent failure.

5:45 Sudan Condemns the Document

The representative from Sudan, condemned the document created as “one of the most disturbing developments in the history of the UNFCCC, threatening lives of millions of people in developing countries.” He continued on to say the statement that then launched continued debate: “L-9 is murderous. It condemns africa to turn into a furnace; 2 degrees results in 3.5 degrees in Africa. L-9 asks Africa to sign a suicide pact – an incineration pact – in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries.”

“L-9 is devoid of any sense of responsibility, morality, and is a solution based on the same values that tunneled 6 million people in Europe into furnaces. No one, no Obama, can force Africa to destroy itself, future generations, and current generations. 2 degrees is certain death, and that is shown by the IPCC report.”

This reference to the Holocaust were further discussed by the majority of participants who called out on this as the incredibly offensive.