Down to the Wire on Climate Talks

With three days left to the conclusion of the Copenhagen climate negotiations, we begin to see the inevitable challenges of setting the framework for an international agreement that the developing and developed world can accept.

We are now at a “very distinct and important moment in the process.”

And yet, it’s not that distinct. Doesn’t it always comes down to this: developing vs. developed; or industrialized vs. emerging; or large vs. small. Or perhaps most precisely, the haves and the have nots.

Once again, for those of us who live in a country where we have more than we could ever need, and the carbon emissions to show for it, we look to other countries who strive to catch up with our standard of living to make sacrifices that we’re just not willing to make ourselves.

The climate debate is more complex than denial versus skepticism, according to Stewart Brand. To the deniers, and skeptics, he adds the “warners” and the “calamatists.” What he missed was the “realists” – those among us who know that we can’t continue business as usual because our natural resources won’t keep pace with our greed. In fact, restoring America’s economic health is linked to restoring the health of our natural systems – and that means reducing global warming pollution.

It’s why decisions at Copenhagen to reduce global deforestation are so critical – clear cutting forests accounts for 15% of all carbon emissions globally. Doug Boucher, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Tropical Forests and Climate Initiative tells us that "Assuming we get a treaty or a treaty framework in Copenhagen, REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) will be part of it and will be one of the biggest successes of the climate summit.”

Jonathan Lash, President of World Resources Institute got it right when he wrote that, "No generation before ours had enough information to understand the urgent need for action to avert climate catastrophe. No generation after ours will have the opportunity – it will be too late to avert terrible harm. We have the evidence to prove that action is necessary. We have the technology to shift to a low carbon economy. We may still have the opportunity to avert catastrophic warming. It is an historic moment. The question is whether we have the wisdom and the will to act."

Three days and counting….