What now after Copenhagen?

Mark Henderson, co-founder and managing director of Ecoliving and member of  the social innovation catalyst, Renaissance 2, and Worldshift 2012 argues that we must remain optimistic about our ability to tackle climate change even after a lost opportunity in Copenhagen and that we all need to step up to our individual responsibility.

In the immediate aftermath of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference we are left searching for strands of comfort and hope for our planet, the precious place 6.8 billion people call home. The cold reality dawning is that of little change and what will probably go down as one of the greatest missed opportunities of our time. The ‘Copenhagen Accord’, a loose agreement in principle, is far short of expectations and nothing close to the legally binding treaty that many had hoped for.  In fact neither any indication of when and how legally binding targets will be agreed nor any declaration of an aim to keep global temperature rises below 2°C.

So what next? Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK’s prime minister, talks of Mexico in December 2010 being ‘the last chance saloon’ for a legally binding protocol but isn’t that how Copenhagen was billed? There were 2 years worth of talks leading up to this summit, so was it all hot air on top of the 121,500 tons of CO₂ that represents the conference’s carbon footprint? I wonder if the result would have been different if the conference had been held in a hot location where delegates would have been closer to the effects of climate change rather than the cool, clinical sophistication of Copenhagen. Somewhere like Tuvalu, the Maldives or Bangladesh perhaps?   

So, we are left with more questions than answers and probably my biggest question is now, can political leaders be relied on to take the action required to avoid the series of disasters and crises predicted as a result of climate change: drought, inundation, mass migration and conflict as a result of water and food shortages? Surely, if Copenhagen has proved anything, it is that politicians are entrenched in a mindset that makes it extremely difficult to move away from political and economic self interest to address a shared urgent global problem. Yes, this is in stark contrast to the financial crisis and it is revealing that the estimated spend of that recent rescue is being put at $12 trillion in bailouts and $14 trillion in the value of the world’s companies wiped out. Compare this to the $9 trillion estimated global cost of climate change presented in the Stern Report.

We also need to face the fact that nations and governments around the world are at different stages of development and consequently cling to different paradigms. Consensus on this scale is difficult so is there an alternative? The majority needs to act on collective wisdom and there are probably more countries in general agreement on carbon reduction targets than ever before. Another positive outcome we can take from Copenhagen is the massive increased awareness of the impending dangers of climate change and the rapidly growing body of millions of engaged individuals and groups around the globe. With a rising movement of more and more individuals taking action by making the right day to day choices for the environment and calling for action we are already seeing change.  

We, in the developed world, need to show leadership and step up to our responsibility. We have been the major polluters, we have the evolutionary maturity to comprehend what is at stake here, we have the desire and the belief that we can make the transition to low carbon, sustainable communities and we can better afford to take action. We have the technology and the know-how. We owe it to ourselves, to our children and to the rest of the world to take more urgent action than we are currently. We need to take a lead and as individuals, communities and organisations to invest in the choices that will turn the tide towards the sustainable future that heralds a new beginning and sees us reach our true potential.

Our governments will follow and accelerate the process as soon as they see sufficient numbers of individuals taking action and soon we will have those countries unable to make the commitments in Copenhagen on board too, embracing new paradigms and keen to be part of an exciting new future!   

We need to demonstrate environmental responsibility in our choices, our buying decisions, our investments, our work and our leisure time. We must guard ourselves from thinking that it doesn’t matter what we do, that it is insignificant. Far from it, everything counts! Nothing we do is in isolation and the positive impact of our actions inspires others and leads them to awareness and change. With the social media tools so many of us are using, the potential for influence and shared action is growing exponentially. The time for hot air has come and gone and the millions who have engaged with the process at Copenhagen and signed up for a sustainable future now need to show strong leadership by taking action in their lives and their communities around the globe.

www.ecolivinguk.com/whats-new

www.renaissance2.eu

www.worldshift2012.org