5 yrs
EWEA's Features

Day two at COP15


With a turbine at the entrance to the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, wind power is having a strong visual impact on the climate summit. The bus delivering delegates to the centre from their hotels stops right underneath the blade of the turbine, Gloria Rodrigues from EWEA said.

Rodrigues described the atmosphere as very busy – a lot busier than previous climate summits like the UNFCCC in Poznan, Poland last year.

At the summit, participants - in particular from developing countries - were agitated about media reports that a leaked draft text would hand more power to rich countries and sideline the United Nation’s role in all future climate change negotiations.

Rémi Gruet from EWEA refuted the media claims saying that it appears that the leaked text is from November and is likely to be “very out of date”. “This is more like media hype”, he said. Claims that the UN might be sidelined may not be all bad news as they have “handled climate financing badly up until now”, Gruet added.

One of key issues remains financing for developing countries, for mitigation and adaptation funds, Rodrigues said. Some want more for adaption, but money could also be invested in mitigation.

Other issues concern carbon cutting targets: the use of different base years as a reference for CO₂ cuts makes it more complex to compare emission reduction targets.  The EU, in-line with Kyoto Protocol rules, is using 1990 as its carbon reference year, while the US has mooted 2005 as its base year. Since their emissions have risen by significant amounts since 1990, it always looks better to reduce emissions by 20% from 2005 than by 3% from 1990. The devil is in the detail, and the detail, here in Copenhagen, is complex.