A few days ago at Deutsche Welle´s headquarters in Bonn/Germany, Professor Adil Najam from Boston University, one of the authors of IPCC´s Fourth World Climate Report, the authors of which were awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 2007 along with Al Gore, said that Copenhagen was not a success and not a failure: not yet. He continued by saying that we had to continue the UN process aimed at getting all nations on board. As long as we did not give up this aim, Copenhagen would not be considered a failure.
On January 20, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer gave a press conference in Bonn . His opening remarks relate the challenges and successes concerning COP15.
“Although COP15 wasn´t a full success, it produced three key outcomes. First, it raised climate change to the highest level of government, which ultimately is the only level at which it can be resolved. Second, the Copenhagen Accord reflects a political consensus on the long-term, global response to climate change. Third, negotiations away from the cameras brought an almost full set of decisions to implement rapid climate action near to completion.
Governments need time to digest what happened but cool heads already see these outcomes as a way forward to grasp a bigger, collective goal. You can say that although Copenhagen didnt produce the final cake, it left countries with the right ingredients to bake a new one in Mexico .”
The next steps towards a binding climate treaty will be the ongoing UNFCCC climate talks in Bonn and elsewhere in 2010 leading up to COP 16 in Mexico City at the beginning of December.
Taking place from June 21 to 23, right in the middle of the 2010 climate talks, the 2010 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum will emphasize the role of the media with regards to climate change. Both Yvo de Boer and Professor Najam have been invited to present their views of the ongoing climate negotiations and a number of other important specialists have already confirmed their participation.
Online registration for the Global Media Forum will start at the end of February. Visit http://www.dw-gmf.de for the latest news on climate change, program updates for the Global Media Forum, information about new speakers and experts, and information about booking exhibition space (early bird rates for booths are available until the end of March).