What is Copenhagen and COP15?

From the (messy) desk of Benjamin (Mr Miyagi) Lee:

There seems to be little or no awareness in Singapore of the Copenhagen Summit. It’s not surprising, given our general attitude that can be summed up as, “we’re a small country, it’s not our problem, let’s see what the big boys do, then we might follow”.

Personally, I’m resigned to the fact that we do not have a framework capable of springboarding Singapore as a global leader in combating climate change despite the many, many opportunities to do so. “Let’s see what the big boys do, ‘cos we’re just a little red dot”. Our inferiority complex is astounding.

Come on, we’re not a little red dot! We’re already global leaders in many areas – we recycle our drinking water, and we’ve got the basic user-pays framework for water consumption that other nations would struggle to implement and therefore take ages to convince people that there are business opportunities in resource conservancy. There are other examples, but I’m beginning to foam at the mouth and that is not a good look.

But for those of us with a modicum of curiosity, you might want to keep abreast of what’s going on at Copenhagen – and then get back to what concerns you municipally – I just wrote to the NEA regarding the lack of recycle bins in my condo even after the management had been ordered by law to comply and supply, but that’s another longish story.

So here’s a useful primer to get you started (and hopefully keep the ball rolling by telling other people):

What is happening in Copenhagen and why is it called COP15?

First of all, COP15 doesn’t refer to COPenhagen.It stands for the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties, which is the highest body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The United States and 191 other countries around the world are all parties to this international climate treaty. And we’re up to the 15th meeting – therefore: COP15.

One of the most well-known COP meetings was COP3 in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, which resulted in the Kyoto Protocol, a document signed by over 180 countries and put into action in February 2005. The protocol set binding emissions targets for greenhouse gases for 37 industrialized countries and the European Union, committing them to reducing their emissions by 7 percent on aggregate against 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

This year’s conference is taking place from December 7-18th in Copenhagen and is being hosted by the Danish government. Officials from 192 countries, plus a sizable number of non-governmental organizations and a large media contingent will be in attendance….

Read more at nature.org