Apoligies for long silence - hbave had internet connections nightmares.Please find below a media release I've just written, pass onto anyone who might be interested.
cheers, Philippa
MEDIA RELEASE – SUNDAY 20TH DECEMBER
Clean Energy for Eternity Views on Copenhagen Outcomes
The world gathered in Copenhagen to watch COP15, the 15th Convention of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Despite the gravity of the climate situation, after days of high drama COP15 clearly did not strike the ‘fair, ambitious and legally binding deal’ called for by the people and required by the science to rapidly bring down global emissions.
What emerged from COP15 in the early hours of Saturday 19th December 2009 was the ‘Copenhagen Accord’, a political agreement brokered by the USA. The deal was struck by President Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma.
It contains no legally binding agreement on targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. To quote UN climate chief Yvo de Boer: "The challenge is now to turn what we have agreed politically in Copenhagen into something real, measurable and verifiable.” In a UNFCCC press release he stated: “We must be honest about what we have got. The world walks away from Copenhagen with a deal. But clearly ambitions to reduce emissions must be raised significantly if we are to hold the world to 2 degrees.”
There were serious reservations about the process, where deals done behind closed doors by a few rich nations were presented as a fait accompli to the rest of the world. In the end, out of an absolutely unprecedented gathering of 115 Heads of State in Copenhagen, only five countries strongly opposed adoption of the decision: Tuvalu, Sudan, Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saw the accord and it’s recognition by the UN process as an essential beginning. Under the Copenhagen Accord, developed countries collectively commit to provide 30 billion US dollars in new, additional funding for developing countries from 2010-2012. Encouraged by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, developed countries also supported “a goal of jointly mobilizing 100 billion dollars a year” by 2020, with a significant proportion of this money to flow through the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund to developing nations.
Developed countries commit to reduce their emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. All countries including China have to submit written plans for curbs in carbon dioxide emissions by January 2010.
Thankfully, what occurred in Copenhagen over the past fortnight was deeper and far-reaching even than the formal COP15 intergovernmental negotiations behind closed doors in the Bella Centre.
Civil society (you, me and the guy next door) from literally across the entire globe had an unprecedented opportunity to network and to organise, a chance to listen to testimonies of those suffering right now from the impacts of climate change – peoples of the Pacific Islands whose very islands are threatened; from the Himalayas and other alpine regions where rapidly retreating glaciers threaten water and food security; from Africa, where 80% of the population is already crowded into 20% of the continent and entire regions are now too hot and dry to even grow maize…
Thanks to the Klimaforum Meshwork team and a range of independent broadcasters (Climate TV, Positive TV and many others), much of the richness and diversity has been captured and documented to inform, strengthen and inspire future work.
And what does all this mean for Australia? It means the world is watching.
Our Australian PM had the dubious honour of joining the “guilty heads” held up in Climate Shame at OksenHallen. The Umbrella Group, which includes Australia, won a Fossil of the Day (awarded for contributing the most to blocking progress in the negotiations on climate change) for proposing Carbon Capture and Storage as a clean development mechanism. Australia won the Fossil of the Day on the second last day of the COP for putting pressure on our Pacific Island neighbours to accept disappearance under the ocean, to accept targets of 2C and 450ppm, levels that science indicates would make their islands unhabitable by the end of this century. Some islands in the Pacific are already becoming uninhabitable as sea level rise makes ground water too saline for breadfruit trees and where increased storm surges knock over the coconut trees one by one.
25,000 committed community representatives travelled to Copenhagen as part of the NGO delegation, and they travel home ever more committed to ensuring rapid action on climate change. In the wake of COP15, governments are put on notice that the world is still watching and tangible progress needs to be made soon. Where governments fail to show leadership, communities will have to lead the way.
For Interviews:
Contact Philippa Rowland Mob. 0429-828 412 Email woodlando@optusnet.com.au
Dr Matthew Nott Mob. 0428 564 415 Email matthewnottortho@gmail.com
Further Information:Copenhagen Accord text can be found at http://www.berlingske.dk/klima/copenhagen-accord
Developing Nations Slam Accord http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH4VN20091218
EU reluctantly signs up to Copenhagen deal http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=3068
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A Request from Bill McKibben 350.org
In this unusual moment in human history,
will you consider doing two unusual things?
1) Make a phone call, demanding that world leaders stick to the science as the pressure builds for them to cave and compromise? www.350.org/call
2) Join A Global Fast for Climate Justice on Thursday and take a moral stand on the challenge of our times.
www.350.org/fast
will you consider doing two unusual things?
1) Make a phone call, demanding that world leaders stick to the science as the pressure builds for them to cave and compromise? www.350.org/call
2) Join A Global Fast for Climate Justice on Thursday and take a moral stand on the challenge of our times.
www.350.org/fast
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Day 10 - Worlds Apart
Wedenesday 16th December 
- My own pathway through the day was remarkably peaceful given the tumultuous events taking place elsewhere around Copenhagen. It ended gloriously with Toni and Bettina showing AQUA at the Pumphaus with Safri Duo. At present, communications between so-called 'civil society' and the formal negotiations have all but fallen through. The first step was Friends of the Earth and AVAAZ staging a small demonstration inside the Bella CEntre, leading them to be banned from entry. A short time later, 200 ngo delegates formed a loud demonstration inside the Bella Centre, calling for the People's Voice to be heard in the negotiations. They left voluntarily to join a +2000 strong demonstration outside, but were blocked from merging at the last minute by police on a bridge.
The immediate result was that, from midday Wednesday, the UN removed all registrations from the entire NGO delegation. No ngos have been allowed access ever since. In my innocence, I caught my usual 4A bus from Norrebrogaden, only to find myself on a lengthy detour to parts unknown, accompanied by the Vice President of the Catalan Climate Office who like me had been up much of the night at the LCA negotiations. Once deposited, we thankfully found a taxi to Bella, only to find the situation calm but the entrance impervious and firmly guarded. So back to the Klmaforum where I attended a Biefing at 7pm, hearing firsthand 'testimonials' of 5 different demonstrations - while those involved feel they have struck a blow for freedom, from where I stand it feels as though a few have led to communication breakdons for the many.
My deepest and most fervent wish is that negotiaters and world leaders inside can concentrate on the most important matter at hand, and quickly return to finding common ground and salvage a robust global deal on some common core principles - a Heads of Agreement that can be built upon in the coming months and years. The issue is too important get bogged.
Central Copenhagen is in semi-lockdown but increadibly beautiful in the snow. Safri Duo and AQUA mesmerized and moved a large audience. I'm so proud of our Bega lasses!
I will keep safe and blog again through the day from an internet cafe. I'm off to join a meditation and a day of fasting at the Oxenhallen.
- My own pathway through the day was remarkably peaceful given the tumultuous events taking place elsewhere around Copenhagen. It ended gloriously with Toni and Bettina showing AQUA at the Pumphaus with Safri Duo. At present, communications between so-called 'civil society' and the formal negotiations have all but fallen through. The first step was Friends of the Earth and AVAAZ staging a small demonstration inside the Bella CEntre, leading them to be banned from entry. A short time later, 200 ngo delegates formed a loud demonstration inside the Bella Centre, calling for the People's Voice to be heard in the negotiations. They left voluntarily to join a +2000 strong demonstration outside, but were blocked from merging at the last minute by police on a bridge.
The immediate result was that, from midday Wednesday, the UN removed all registrations from the entire NGO delegation. No ngos have been allowed access ever since. In my innocence, I caught my usual 4A bus from Norrebrogaden, only to find myself on a lengthy detour to parts unknown, accompanied by the Vice President of the Catalan Climate Office who like me had been up much of the night at the LCA negotiations. Once deposited, we thankfully found a taxi to Bella, only to find the situation calm but the entrance impervious and firmly guarded. So back to the Klmaforum where I attended a Biefing at 7pm, hearing firsthand 'testimonials' of 5 different demonstrations - while those involved feel they have struck a blow for freedom, from where I stand it feels as though a few have led to communication breakdons for the many.
My deepest and most fervent wish is that negotiaters and world leaders inside can concentrate on the most important matter at hand, and quickly return to finding common ground and salvage a robust global deal on some common core principles - a Heads of Agreement that can be built upon in the coming months and years. The issue is too important get bogged.
Central Copenhagen is in semi-lockdown but increadibly beautiful in the snow. Safri Duo and AQUA mesmerized and moved a large audience. I'm so proud of our Bega lasses!
I will keep safe and blog again through the day from an internet cafe. I'm off to join a meditation and a day of fasting at the Oxenhallen.
Day 9 - Snow and ...
Wednesday 16th December - 
AQUA is showing tonight in the Pumphaus, the film of the Great Barrier Reef, 'a chronicle of a world in peril'. I'm hoping a few Australians from our delegation will come and show support, especially as quite a few of us now have limited access to the formal negotiations.
Yesterday I went to the Bella Centre twice, once to meet IRENA, the international renewable energy association, and attend the daily meeting of the Climate Action Network-International, seen here voting on which parties should receive a Fossil Award.
Came back later and stayed until 2am, gaining real insight into timeframes and processes, meeting Drew Clark from the Australian delegation at the Ad Hoc Working Group on Longterm Cooperative Action under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - progress is slow and the developing world is committed to pushing through for binding practical commitments to support those hardest hit and least able to cope with the impacts of climate change. Revised texts finally arrived and negotiations got underway again, simultaneously translated into many languages.
The intensity of these negotiations was put in perspective by my morning hearing testimonies from several ministers of religion who took part in Copenhagen Cathedral. One quoted Martin Luther King's 1963 "The Fierce Urgency of Now".. Professor Mugambe of Kenya described the biogeography of the African continuent, where 40 million people share the only 20% of the continent with decent rainfall and spoke of the potential for freshwater to eradicate poverty. In his view, we have science and technology in plenty - what we need is to awaken our ethics and spirituality and work with the people on the ground who know their situation best. He had a wonderful example of communities in the Nile River Basin who built 500 little weirs in dry river beds to catch the infrequent deluges (now falling in torrents in 2 weeks rather than over a 3-4 month period) to water sorghum where maize no longer survives the heat.
In between I went to the Klimaforum .. coinciding with the President of the Maldives looking at photos of endangered islands ... met Navajo women working to develop clean jobs and protect their communities...
and enjoyed snow outside the Bella, where I met some Bolivians from Lake Titicaca .. 
and heard a bit of Arnold Schwarznegger outside the US Pavilion where the USDA displays its views...
It's hard to be bored around here...
Philippa
AQUA is showing tonight in the Pumphaus, the film of the Great Barrier Reef, 'a chronicle of a world in peril'. I'm hoping a few Australians from our delegation will come and show support, especially as quite a few of us now have limited access to the formal negotiations.
Yesterday I went to the Bella Centre twice, once to meet IRENA, the international renewable energy association, and attend the daily meeting of the Climate Action Network-International, seen here voting on which parties should receive a Fossil Award.
Came back later and stayed until 2am, gaining real insight into timeframes and processes, meeting Drew Clark from the Australian delegation at the Ad Hoc Working Group on Longterm Cooperative Action under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - progress is slow and the developing world is committed to pushing through for binding practical commitments to support those hardest hit and least able to cope with the impacts of climate change. Revised texts finally arrived and negotiations got underway again, simultaneously translated into many languages.
The intensity of these negotiations was put in perspective by my morning hearing testimonies from several ministers of religion who took part in Copenhagen Cathedral. One quoted Martin Luther King's 1963 "The Fierce Urgency of Now".. Professor Mugambe of Kenya described the biogeography of the African continuent, where 40 million people share the only 20% of the continent with decent rainfall and spoke of the potential for freshwater to eradicate poverty. In his view, we have science and technology in plenty - what we need is to awaken our ethics and spirituality and work with the people on the ground who know their situation best. He had a wonderful example of communities in the Nile River Basin who built 500 little weirs in dry river beds to catch the infrequent deluges (now falling in torrents in 2 weeks rather than over a 3-4 month period) to water sorghum where maize no longer survives the heat.
In between I went to the Klimaforum .. coinciding with the President of the Maldives looking at photos of endangered islands ... met Navajo women working to develop clean jobs and protect their communities...
and enjoyed snow outside the Bella, where I met some Bolivians from Lake Titicaca .. 
and heard a bit of Arnold Schwarznegger outside the US Pavilion where the USDA displays its views...
It's hard to be bored around here...
Philippa
Monday, December 14, 2009
Day 8 - The Multiple Worlds of Climate Change
Monday 14th December - A day of contrasts, of confusions and challenges (NB blog incomplete - to be updated later today!)
The crowds were even bigger than on my arrival last Tuesday, a fact that was to play out through the day. Entire delegations got caught in the queues, waiting four hours in the cold instead of giving talks or attending their press conferences. Around lunchtime I went to hear Yvo de Boer provide an update on progress with the international negotiations, but he had been caught up in Ministerial briefings and was unable to attend. Instead I learnt the facts behind the flying rumours: on Tuesday and Wednesday, ngo number will be limited to 7000 via a two pass system, on Thursday this will drop to 1000 and on Friday, the last day on the climate talks, only 90 members of civil society will have access to the Bella Centre
One challenge is going to be how to keep us all informed on progress, another to find venues that can cope with an additional 24,410 people washing around. The Danes have been incredibly organised and accommodating, so I have confidence something will transpire. Meanwhile there are no end of other venues to participate in lively climate fora and hear the lastest science, see the latest films and generally feel the international pulse.
One good place for information is the CANA (Climate Action Network Australia) site. Always worth cross checking references, millions out there, one is equity watch from centre of science and environment in India they always give an articulate developing world perspective.
Long Term Cooperative Action
The crowds were even bigger than on my arrival last Tuesday, a fact that was to play out through the day. Entire delegations got caught in the queues, waiting four hours in the cold instead of giving talks or attending their press conferences. Around lunchtime I went to hear Yvo de Boer provide an update on progress with the international negotiations, but he had been caught up in Ministerial briefings and was unable to attend. Instead I learnt the facts behind the flying rumours: on Tuesday and Wednesday, ngo number will be limited to 7000 via a two pass system, on Thursday this will drop to 1000 and on Friday, the last day on the climate talks, only 90 members of civil society will have access to the Bella Centre
One challenge is going to be how to keep us all informed on progress, another to find venues that can cope with an additional 24,410 people washing around. The Danes have been incredibly organised and accommodating, so I have confidence something will transpire. Meanwhile there are no end of other venues to participate in lively climate fora and hear the lastest science, see the latest films and generally feel the international pulse.
One good place for information is the CANA (Climate Action Network Australia) site. Always worth cross checking references, millions out there, one is equity watch from centre of science and environment in India they always give an articulate developing world perspective.
Long Term Cooperative Action
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Day 7 - Reflection and renewal
I joined hundreds in the Cathedral of Copenhagen for an international ecumenical celebration of creation led by Archbishop of Cantebury Rowan Williams and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ministers of religion from Denmark, Tuvalu, Zambia, Greenland and Mexico took part along with the Secretaries General of the Nordic Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Council of Churches in Denmark...Three symbols of clmate change were carried in the procession - glacier stones from Greenland, dried up maize from Africa and bleached corals from the Pacific Ocean.
I couldn't help pondering what symbol might represent Australia and felt sadly it might well be a lump of charcoal, as I hear distant reports of the fires contining to burn across the country in this early fierce fire season.
Rowan Williams was challenging and constructive - "Love casts out fear. A commitment to the environment is a recognition that we are both called upon and enabled to be in a place where god's love for the world comes through us, taking delght in the created world, seeing it not with anxiety but an excited and hopeful sense of understanding and cherishing its interdependent beauty."
Made firm friends with Danish Anna, who kindly took me out for hot cholcolate at one of Copenhagen's original teashops. Oh yes, and I've fallen head over heels in love with Danish bicycles...
A day for catching up on emails and washing. A day for preparing for the week ahead. Will be spending less time at the Bella Centre, as increasing numbers have led to a quota system so I will be sharing my pass with another two delegates.
Gregg Borschman has been breaking news on Australia's efforts to:
cook the books - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/14/2770326.htm and use farm soil to offset Australian emissions - http://bit.ly/5JyyzR.
Good night.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Day 6 - Copenhagen Rally and Candlelit Vigil
Just took part in the MOST amazing march of 100,000 people across Copenhagen, 6km from Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) in central Copenhagen to the Bella Centre. Speakers beforehand included Kumi Naidoo, ED of Greenpeace International and the Nigerian chair of Friends of the Earth International.
I found two spare poles and Jenny helped me carry the clean energy for eternity banner the entire way, eventually arriving at the Bella Centre 6.30pm in the dark. Bettina and Toni came to film the start, then we found a marching spot behind a
bamboo boat on wheels from the Philippines and in front of a Swedish theatre group from with a vast blue sheet emblazoned with "Survival is Not Negotiable".
Overwhelming sense of the march was one of good willed determination,
People are entirely committed to seeing this through to a 'sound, just and binding' outcome. And the creativity!!! everywhere people had turned their minds to telling their stories, calling on world governments in copenhagen to turn down the heat.
Brief worrying moment as police cordon thrown around us and vans full of police dogs appeared. Thankfully after 5-10 minutes we were let through, but t'was not true for some 800 others, arrested immediately below the Get-UP team flat, just along from my photo of the 350 banner hanging out the window. Take a look at the slideshow I've put up on CEFE website. to share the colour and movement. 6km becomes A LONG MARCH when you're one of 100,000 bodies on the move!
NGO party was in a nightclub called the VEGA, not quite my scene but an excellent salsa band, followed by klesma. Impassioned fellow from Mauritius jumped up on stage, exhorting us all in rapid French to ensure that world leaders don't go home next week until they've signed an ambitious deal.
From Monday the serious end of the negotiations begins. Forgive me for not providing detail on the various complexities of the negotiations. For one thing, we've been asked to be circumspect with our communuications. Equally importantly, I wouldn't do it justice - those wanting detailed and accurate updates should refer to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. Today (Sunday) will be a day of reflection hearing Bishop Desmond Tutu and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
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