Letters from COP15

Daily reports from Shauna Sylvester, director of Canada's World, from the Cop15 climate summit in Copenhagen.

Day 7 (Dec 16): Christiana, Copenhagen and the Cost of Doing Nothing

It’s the end of my stay in Copenhagen. I woke up early this morning, packed away all of the literature I collected from Bright Green trade show, and headed off to the airport. My taxi driver asked me what I thought about all of “this klima talk.” “Did you know they are spending $28 million dollars a day for this – and for what I ask you – nothing? That’s what,” he scoffed.

On the way to the airport we stopped by Christiana, the large community that was set up by squatters on the outskirts of town. It has been the host to a number of Copenhagen climate change events led by artists and musicians. It’s an intriguing development that stretches several city blocks. The taxi driver loves Christiana. He tells me that rap artist Snoop Dog visited it last year and proclaimed that it was heaven on earth. I’m not so sure, but I’m impressed with the community they have created among the old dilapidated buildings. It’s a nice contrast to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

I juxtapose Christiana with the Bella Centre and the sterile environment that surrounds most international negotiations. For anyone who has spent time in the bowels of the United Nations building, you can understand why creative thinking does not flourish in such dark and dismal spaces. Perhaps if our negotiators could just get out of these tombs, they might see the light. Instead they are burrowed away in their negotiating rooms, sustained with bad coffee and sandwiches and forced to negotiate into the early hours of the morning.

Alas, if I could only blame their limited vision on their working conditions but I know better. As I arrived home and crawled into bed last night, I was pleased to see that the lead story on the National was COP 15 related. Terry Milewski’s was reporting on the leaked documents outlining Canada’s new targets for green house gas emissions. If our strategy in Copenhagen wasn’t bad enough, now Canada is actually suggesting a dramatic weakening of our emission targets.

The reason for this weakening is to harmonize the Canadian oil companies with the weakest elements of a proposed bill in the United States that would protect energy intensive and trade exposed industries. Herein lays the difficulty for Canada when President Obama arrives in Copenhagen. Canada has decided not to negotiate in good faith with other nations in Copenhagen. Instead, our Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment have chosen to align themselves with the most conservative forces in the U.S. The Obama administration is trying to carve out a greener, more progressive policy for the U.S. at COP 15, but they will not be looking to Canada for support in this. Harper and Prentice have staked out their territory and unfortunately they have stood in line with the Republicans (intentionally or not) who are in Copenhagen to thwart the President’s initiative.

As I look back on this week, I can’t help but wonder how Canada could have fallen so far and so quickly from grace in the eyes of the global community. Is it our government’s inexperience in international negotiations that has brought us to this unenviable position? Or is it that they cannot see the larger picture because of their close bond with the oil and gas industry? Where are the voices of the other businesses in this country that stand to gain enormously from shifting to a greener, low-carbon economy?

I think it is going to take a miracle to get a good deal out of Copenhagen. And if it is one thing I’ve learned in this last week, it’s that the negotiators are immune to the pleas of citizens. So, if citizens don’t matter, perhaps the engines of our economy should speak louder. Perhaps it’s time for other businesses to get vocal. If Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Lafarge, and Unilever can call for a price on carbon in Copenhagen, perhaps it’s time that RIM, SNC Lavalin, Bell, MEC, and other Canadian companies flex their muscles.