Danish NGOs fight to protect the climate

PRESSURE FROM NGO’S

By Anna Mogensen

When the global climate agreement is negotiated in Copenhagen in December, the host nation Denmark will have had no more or less influence on the final text than any other nation.

But the Danish setting for the negotiations can help exert influence on decision-makers to sign an ambitious climate agreement. Denmark is an exhibition window for future energy-efficient technologies that form part of the solution to reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases. So says Finn Mortensen, who is chairman of Climate Consortium Denmark, a public-private sector partnership which acts as a spearhead for climate and energy solutions from Danish technology companies.

“For the past 20 years, Denmark has shown that it is possible to keep energy consumption constant while creating economic growth. The better we are at drawing attention to Denmark’s exemplary climate and energy technologies at COP15, the more international awareness our solutions will gain. It might inspire the negotiators to say that it is possible to get an agreement in place,” says Finn Mortensen.

Climate Consortium Denmark’s task is to brand the Danish climate-friendly technology sector, and has no vested interests in influencing specific points in a new climate agreement.

“We have no influence on the COP15 agenda, but of course the greater the focus on climate friendly technological solutions, the better it will be for Denmark. We have a leading position in wind power and are very good in the biomass area. We will demonstrate these core competences to journalists and international commercial decision-makers to put Denmark front of mind when investment choices need to be made and climate-friendly solutions focused on,” explains Finn Mortensen.

Fair climate agreement

A number of Danish non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are leading the way to ensure that a new climate agreement will benefit the poorest developing countries, which will be hardest hit by climate change. The 92 Group is a Danish umbrella organisation that unites the interests of Danish developing-country and environmental organisations around a shared agenda of development and climate. The objective is to help steer COP15 negotiations towards a new agreement that ensures that developing countries get sufficient money and technology to tackle the climate challenge.

“Firstly, we want a climate agreement that enables us to keep the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. Secondly, we want a fair agreement where the rich countries take the lead in reducing their CO2 emissions and ensure transfer of money and technology to the developing countries,” explains Troels Dam Kristensen, the coordinator of the 92 Group.

At COP15, the main task of the 92 Group is to do lobby work and closely follow the political negotiations. While poor coordination between parties often impairs efficient action in working to curb climate change, the 92 Group exemplifies how Danish NGOs aim to coordinate their activities with international NGOs before and during the climate summit.

“Besides closely following the international climate negotiations, our task is also to follow up on the political initiatives in this country,” says Troels Dam Kristensen, who continues:

“We ensure contact with the international NGO network and Danish decision-makers to coordinate the NGOs’ viewpoints and reach shared views on how we relate to major issues such as financing and climate adaptation in the developing countries.”

Wind power is showing its worth

Denmark needs powerful supporters who see the potential of wind power as an alternative to fossil fuels in the energy of the future. When US President Obama praises Denmark as a pioneering country, leading the way in wind power, it is an invaluable tribute. Because the message is that Danish wind turbines have already won the wager that sustainable energy should be part of a new climate agreement at the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen. So opines the Danish Wind Industry Association.

“To us it is important that there will be an agreement in Copenhagen which focuses on the solutions that are available here and now. With wind power it is possible to supply 12 per cent of the world’s electricity consumption by 2020 and reduce CO2 emissions by 10 billion tons in the period leading up to it. Wind power has already shown its worth,” says Anders Dalegaard, project manager at the Danish Wind Industry Association.

The Wind Power Works campaign, which the association is running together the Global Wind Energy Council, shows through a number of selected case stories how wind power is already one of the solutions to the climate challenge.

“The campaign is targeted at political decision-makers and civil servants who need to obtain information on wind power. We do that through 12 case stories, which focus on the economic and climate-related benefits of using wind power,” says Dalegaard. “Wind power is not just a European or North American project, but functions worldwide. We have cases from Egypt, India and Brazil precisely because political decision-makers need look no further than their own neighbourhoods to see that wind power is also a solution for them.”

The 12 cases can be seen on http://www.windpowerworks.net

A message to the negotiators

The Danish Society for Nature Conservation takes the targeted view that CO2 emissions should be reduced by 50 percent by 2030, compared to the 1990 level.

The aim is that energy consumption in buildings and in the transport sector should be halved by 2025, and renewable energy should account for at least 50 per cent of total energy consumption by 2025.

The society is heading The Copenhagen Climate Exchange exhibition in the days leading up to COP15.

The event provides a meeting place and an exhibition space for cities, municipalities, grassroots organisations and companies from around the world. The displays will showcase local climate-friendly solutions and ordinary people’s own contributions in everyday life that make a positive difference in reducing CO2 emissions.

The Copenhagen Climate Exchange, which will be held in the Øksnehallen exhibition venue, will send a message to the negotiators and the rest of the world that the climate challenge should not be tackled just through technical formulations and complex political agreements, but also through everyday practical solutions where ordinary people have an influence.

“Our climate efforts at COP15 have two purposes. One is that to achieve specific results, citizens, municipalities and organisations must join forces and join in. The other is to send a signal to the international negotiations that people really want a far-reaching agreement achieved,” says Susanne Herfelt, deputy director of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation.

From May to October 2009, the society is also organising nine Local Climate Summits across Denmark in collaboration with nine municipalities.

Local decision-makers and citizens will meet to prepare a number of recommendations to make local improvements that can benefit the climate.

The climate recommendations from the Local Climate Summits will be collated and presented to the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard, prior to COP15.

The public’s voice counts

The Climate Movement of Denmark is one of the most recently formed organisations that puts the climate challenge on the agenda. It is a grassroots movement to combat global warming and fight for an ambitious climate policy in Denmark and internationally.

It primarily targets the climate challenge and seeks to encourage ordinary citizens to take personal responsibility and make an effort for the climate in their everyday lives. Its agenda is also to pressurise politicians to take decisions in the direction of more CO2 neutral and sustainable development.

“We must help persuade politicians to acquaint themselves with the environment and climate policy the people want,” says Thomas Meinert Larsen, spokesman for the Climate Movement of Denmark.

The organisation is a member of the Public Climate Forum, which will hold a comprehensive climate conference for grass-roots organisations, associations and citizens’ organisations in parallel with the official summit in Copenhagen.

“A large number of environmental and grassroots organisations are represented and will make an independent proposal to tackle the climate challenge. The decisions that will be made during COP15 must be put into perspective against the decisions made by the NGOs, and it will be an important focus for us that knowledge is exchanged with all the parties involved,” says Thomas Meinert Larsen.

The Danish Government’s goals for COP15

The Danish Government's goal is to enter into a binding global climate agreement at the United Nations Conference in Copenhagen. The agreement will apply to the period after 2012.

The government’s ambition is for the agreement to include as many countries as possible, and that the agreement must contribute to a reduction in man-made greenhouse gases which have a negative effect on our climate system.

The government will therefore put all its efforts into obtaining an agreement that combines respect for the environment, living standards and long-term security of energy supply in the best way possible.

Read more on http://www.COP15.dk