Climate change is everybody’s concern – engage!

23/1-2009, by Connie Hedegaard is Minister for Climate and Energy in Denmark.

The task is daunting. 192 countries must forge an agreement that can contain what may be mankind’s largest challenge in the 21st century: man-made climate change.

The consequences are dire. And they are already taking place. All over the world the weather is changing. Rainfalls are getting heavier, storms are getting tougher, and droughts are getting longer. The melting of the ice caps in Greenland and the Arctic is picking up pace and sea levels are rising. The habitats of plants and animals are threatened. Food production is under pressure.

Last year, I saw with my own eyes how the livelihoods of poor farmers in Mali were first stifled by a long drought, and then literally washed away by cascades of rain. The respected English economist Lord Nicholas Stern has predicted that millions, perhaps even counted in hundreds of millions people could be climate fugitives by 2050, fleeing from water shortage, famine, and natural disasters.

As if that wasn’t enough, climate change is on the verge of a tipping point. If left unbridled, the temperature rise may trigger an avalanche of positive feedback effects that will increase the pace of changes dramatically and make the damages irreversible. According to Nobel Laureate and head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations, Dr. Pachauri, we have only ten years to turn the boat.

In its fourth assessment report, IPCC, which consists of more than 2000 scientists and researchers, concluded that it is more than 90% certain that human activity has contributed to global warming. The temperature rise is caused by increased amounts of green house gases in the atmosphere, not least CO2. The emission of CO2 is mainly related to human use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Under any circumstance, we need to think smarter in the future: In 2050, we will be 9 billion people living on this earth, and 8 of these 9 billion will be living in areas that we today call the developing world. To me, this makes it very obvious that economic growth simply needs to be sustainable growth. The resources in the world are scarce. Being as energy efficient as possible and finding new smarter energy solutions are imperatives of the years to come.

Not every aspect of the challenge of climate change will be overcome once and for all in Copenhagen. But if everything works out, the conference could go down in history as the moment where the leaders of the world united and took a significant step towards containment of dangerous and destructive climatic changes.

To host such an event is a great honour. Denmark takes on this task humbly and well aware that no matter how hard we try, we have no guarantee for success. We will work for an ambitious result. But by disagreeing, one country can make the whole thing tumble. As hosts, we therefore have special obligations. We must listen and mediate. We must make sure that we reach an agreement and that all countries are on board.

But apart from listening and mediating, we have another important job: Reaching out. I personally feel it is incredibly important that the conference does not only involve a narrow group of professional actors – politicians, bureaucrats and business people.

Climate change is everybody’s concern. It is about the choices we make every day. We contribute to global warming each time we take the car, each time we turn on the television, each time we fly on holiday. Therefore everybody has a personal responsibility to act and engage.

With this website, we hope to engage people from all over the world in a debate about climate – what should be done and how? In the coming year we will make sure that cop15.dk is a credible and updated source of information for everybody – politicians, citizens, negotiators. And here, on the Climate Thinkers Blog, we will lay the foundation for a qualified debate by inviting some of the most important writers and thinkers in the field to express their opinions. Last, but not least, we will make sure that everybody gets the opportunity to voice their opinions.

Is debate anything but hot air? Does it make a difference? My experience from years of international negotiations is that it actually does make a difference. You get an idea, come across some new facts or an interesting point of view in a blog or an article. You tell somebody else, and they pass it on or include it in a background paper or a memo. And suddenly, one day, the idea is accepted as general knowledge and referred to in interviews, speeches and official documents.

Therefore: Read, comment, engage. Who knows? Perhaps it is your idea, your argument which will one day be referred to in the plenary session speeches.

Connie Hedegaard is Minister for Climate and Energy in Denmark.