Reason to Be Optimistic About Climate Change Fight #5: Copenhagen

by Mike Smith · 2009-12-26 08:23:00 UTC
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As another year comes to an end, many are pessimistic about mankind's hopes to mitigate the effects of climate change. Today, we're reminded it's the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami and earthquake that killed 250,000.

Soon, 500,000 people a year will be dying due to climate change. The number is already 300,000, killing people all around the globe. That's 300,000 reasons to pressure leaders to take action, and there are 6 billion other reasons to continue the fight. This year, it hasn't been all bad news though, and we've had a few victories in the fight against climate change, despite dismally slow progress. Over the next five days I'll present five reasons to be optimistic, reasons to keep up the pressure and believe we can make progress:

Reason #5: Copenhagen wasn't a complete failure. Though there was no ambitious international agreement, or any binding targets agreed, China and the United States were engaged in talks, and countries agreed to limit temperature rises to 2 degrees in the Copenhagen Accord. Even better, Brazil, India and South Africa were all engaged at the highest level — developing nations have a voice, and are an increasingly powerful force, as the small island states like the Maldives and Tuvalu demonstrates.

The result of Copenhagen was far from a win, but more ambitious targets will be coming, and some groundwork has been laid for more successes in the future. Even the the Prime Minister of Bangladesh — a country many contend to be the country worst hit by climate change — considered the conference to have reached a "reasonable conclusion." Taking advice of experts on how to move forwards is an essential next step to ensure Copenhagen's "reasonable conclusion" is only preface to a fair, ambitious, and binding (FAB) deal being made in Mexico City at COP16. Of course, we don't need to rely solely on optimism. And we must not be passive. Join us here at Change.org as we spend the next 12 months taking meaningful direct action to make our voices heard.

Photo credit: Takver

Mike Smith
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