Copenhagen, Climate Change, and Minimizing Impacts

5 'asks' for COP15

The climate is changing, and burning CO2 is a driving force in current changes. And with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), there are a lot of people pushing for an international treaty of some sort that addresses needs for mitigation and adaptation measures to the changing climate. Each nation and each advocacy group is busy lobbying for its own set of ideas as to how these should be accomplished, and it is likely that no one will come away satisfied. Such is the nature of politics and compromises.

Some want mitigation measures to do more than cut global carbon emissions, such as 350.org, which proposes that we aim to roll back the clock, by taking some already burned-off carbon back. Others argue that this is impractical or even impossible, and that life will go on in a warming world albeit with consequences. Largely because I’m cynical about the chances of forming a political coalition capable of addressing climate change in any meaningful way, I am content with a conservationist strategy that seeks to limit the extent and impacts of climate change. This way even when hardships associated with a changing world come, we will have done what was reasonably achievable to safeguard as many species and their habitats as possible.

So I applaud the stance that BirdLife International and its partners are taking as an advocacy group going into COP15. What do you think?

Global warning: BirdLife’s 5 asks for Copenhagen:

1. Cut global emissions by the amount needed to limit global average temperature rises to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
2. Recognise the vital importance of safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystems and the essential services they provide in climate change mitigation, in particular, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
3. Recognise the vital importance of safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystems and the essential services they provide in climate change adaptation.
4. Provide funding for developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation, enable adaptation to climate change, and support low-carbon development.
5. Ensure that when developed countries account for their land-use sectors they account fully for carbon emissions to, and removals from, the atmosphere.

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