The Story behind COP15, G77, Klimaforum09 and the Tired Ambassador

Copenhagen Out of the Frying Pan, Part 2

I walked into the alternative to the Climate Conference, "Klimaforum09," with a specific question I wanted answered: "In what practical way can the activists here be successful in the effort to avoid catastrophic climate change?" I had heard plenty of general declarations about how bad our plight is, and about the necessity for clean energy to happen fast -- but I wanted to know what was being done to get from Point A to Point B.

The first person I asked was Christian Andersen, one of the organizers of the Klimaforum. He was holding a copy of their 7-page document, "A Peoples' Declaration from Klimaforum09," which includes solutions to the crisis that go much further towards a decent climate outcome than we would get from the agreements being hammered out at the official UN meetings. But was this just another pie-in-the-sky, utopian wish-list?

So I asked (No Hans) Christian Andersen what was actually going on here in Copenhagen to get us really on the road to a livable future.

Christian did not disappoint me. He told me about how late on the previous night, Ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping (the Sudanese chair of the G77, the coalition of well over a hundred developing countries which negotiate as a group at the United Nations (UN) climate meetings) had walked out on a meeting out of frustration with the way things were going. This event put Christian and his colleagues on red alert: they immediately mobilized to contact, Mr. Di-Aping, with the mission of delivering to him their document. The goal was to have the G77 adopt the position delineated on the Klimaforum09 document, which was already close to the G77's position.

This bringing together of the G77 with the worldwide coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) represented by Klimaforum could result in the kind of power block capable of changing the world's agenda in a significant way. If the NGO's and the G77 said in one united voice, in effect, that the binding goals must be in line with science or we won't go along, that would have a major impact on the prospects for getting the planet on the right track with the right agenda.

But they were still looking for the Sudanese Ambassador.

Impressed with the breaking story, I was about to file my blog, but just at that moment I was introduced to one of Christian's colleagues, Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulen-Ma'at (from Barbados) from the "We Demand Reparations Campaign." Jahahara had just found the Ambassador, handed him the document, and made the first steps toward the goal of common cause and action. Christian was visibly thrilled with this occurrence. Jahahara also had the news that the Ambassador had not actually left the UN meeting out of frustration, but in fact it was just quite late and he wanted to go to sleep. But that doesn't change the facts on the ground -- the G77 is not at all happy with the way things are going, and the Ambassador was open to the Klimaforum09 proposition.

So that's the skinny on this story that you may see reported in the next few days. I will be trying to cull more inside scuttle as the events unfold. But for now I must stop writing because a large demonstration and march is about to begin near where the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior is docked in the center of the city. So I am off to check that out. Sayonara from Your Man in the Frying Pan, Alex Carlin.

Alex Carlin serves as a Director of The Leo J. and Celia Carlin Fund. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Krakow, Poland. He is the organizer of 100 Miles of Mirrors and his writings include 100 Miles of Mirrors: A Simple, Feasible Plan for Averting Global Climatic Disaster, In These Times (December 1, 2009).