Copenhagen:
If they fail to reach a deal this week at the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, world leaders flying in their private jets and staying in five-star hotels will have little to show for their efforts beyond a big, fat carbon footprint.
Heads of state and government began arriving in the Danish capital on Wednesday to try to seal a deal on a new climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. As a series of private jets and commercial airliners landed at Copenhagen's international airport, a customary limousine and escort greeted global leaders as they headed to their hotels. Those travelling to Copenhagen on commercial flights include Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
US President Barack Obama was travelling on the presidential aeroplane, Air Force One, French President Nicolas Sarkozy in his special Airbus, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on a presidential jet nicknamed "aerolula."
But it's not only heads of state who are making the journey to Denmark. Around 15,000 delegates, environmentalists, scientists and journalists have come together for the two-week negotiations, known as COP 15, the 15th Conference of Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Once the delegates and leaders have arrived in Copenhagen, their carbon footprint for the summit itself is relatively small, thanks to the efforts of Jan-Christoph Napierski, who heads conference logistics for the Danish Foreign Ministry and has the job of the so-called "greening" of the Bella Centre, the venue for the talks. His job includes overseeing a 'Green Team' of helpers, charged with assisting conference delegates with enquiries about the measures being taken to minimise the summit's greenhouse gas emissions.
The UN estimates 40,500 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will have been pumped into the atmosphere by the time the 12-day conference ends, but according to Napierski, most of that comes from international travel to the venue. "About 90 percent of emissions from COP15 actually derive from the travel to and from Copenhagen, because a lot of delegates come by plane," Napierski said. The rest, 10 percent, comes from waste and electricity related to transport to and from the conference centre and lodging in and around the capital.
Organisers from the Danish government say they are doing everything they can to minimise the conference's carbon footprint. This includes the use of low or zero-emissions limousines to ferry delegates from their hotels to the summit talks. 400 such vehicles - some running on hydrogen fuel, others on Danish-produced bioethanol - can be found lined up in a warehouse close to the city centre, waiting in subzero temperatures to shuttle delegates between their hotels and the conference centre. Whatever emissions cannot be avoided, the conference organisers say, are offset by investing in projects in developing countries - a move that has drawn criticism from some activists.
Asad Rehman, a spokesman for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, said offsetting schemes were discredited because they allowed developed countries to continue their patterns of behaviour without seeking more effective ways to cut emissions. Countries should do more to reduce their large delegations and their indulgence in luxury travel, he said. "There is an obsession by world leaders to be able to come in here with big entourages on their special aeroplanes," Rehman explained. "If they're coming here with an empty pocket and empty promises, then they should stay at home."
But the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents some 230 international airlines, claims the aviation industry is making strides to reduce its carbon emissions and should not be regarded as the number one climate criminal. Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO, claimed air travel was the "most environmentally-friendly way to travel" over long distances, of the kind world leaders would be travelling to reach Copenhagen.
Low emissions transportation is not the only way the Danes are trying to keep the COP15 summit green. Inside the vast hall that houses representatives of 192 nations for the climate conference plenary sessions, energy-efficient LED (light emitting diode) spotlights have been placed in the lighting rigs. "These are LED spots, used for the first time at a large, international, political conference," says Napierski, as he pointed out emissions-reducing features during a tour of the Bella Centre.
COP15 organisers have reduced emissions by 20 percent through a number of measures, including the promotion of public transport, encouraging hotels to provide environmentally certified rooms and laying low-carbon footprint carpets on the venue's floors. They are offsetting the rest of the emissions by investing in a programme to upgrade antiquated brick kilns in Bangladesh with the help of the World Bank. The scheme sees heavily polluting, existing kilns replaced by 20 new energy efficient ones, cutting CO2 emissions and improving the air quality in Dhaka, one of the world's most polluted cities, according to the Danish Ministry of Energy.
Heads of state and government began arriving in the Danish capital on Wednesday to try to seal a deal on a new climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. As a series of private jets and commercial airliners landed at Copenhagen's international airport, a customary limousine and escort greeted global leaders as they headed to their hotels. Those travelling to Copenhagen on commercial flights include Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
US President Barack Obama was travelling on the presidential aeroplane, Air Force One, French President Nicolas Sarkozy in his special Airbus, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on a presidential jet nicknamed "aerolula."
But it's not only heads of state who are making the journey to Denmark. Around 15,000 delegates, environmentalists, scientists and journalists have come together for the two-week negotiations, known as COP 15, the 15th Conference of Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Once the delegates and leaders have arrived in Copenhagen, their carbon footprint for the summit itself is relatively small, thanks to the efforts of Jan-Christoph Napierski, who heads conference logistics for the Danish Foreign Ministry and has the job of the so-called "greening" of the Bella Centre, the venue for the talks. His job includes overseeing a 'Green Team' of helpers, charged with assisting conference delegates with enquiries about the measures being taken to minimise the summit's greenhouse gas emissions.
The UN estimates 40,500 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will have been pumped into the atmosphere by the time the 12-day conference ends, but according to Napierski, most of that comes from international travel to the venue. "About 90 percent of emissions from COP15 actually derive from the travel to and from Copenhagen, because a lot of delegates come by plane," Napierski said. The rest, 10 percent, comes from waste and electricity related to transport to and from the conference centre and lodging in and around the capital.
Organisers from the Danish government say they are doing everything they can to minimise the conference's carbon footprint. This includes the use of low or zero-emissions limousines to ferry delegates from their hotels to the summit talks. 400 such vehicles - some running on hydrogen fuel, others on Danish-produced bioethanol - can be found lined up in a warehouse close to the city centre, waiting in subzero temperatures to shuttle delegates between their hotels and the conference centre. Whatever emissions cannot be avoided, the conference organisers say, are offset by investing in projects in developing countries - a move that has drawn criticism from some activists.
Asad Rehman, a spokesman for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, said offsetting schemes were discredited because they allowed developed countries to continue their patterns of behaviour without seeking more effective ways to cut emissions. Countries should do more to reduce their large delegations and their indulgence in luxury travel, he said. "There is an obsession by world leaders to be able to come in here with big entourages on their special aeroplanes," Rehman explained. "If they're coming here with an empty pocket and empty promises, then they should stay at home."
But the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents some 230 international airlines, claims the aviation industry is making strides to reduce its carbon emissions and should not be regarded as the number one climate criminal. Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO, claimed air travel was the "most environmentally-friendly way to travel" over long distances, of the kind world leaders would be travelling to reach Copenhagen.
Low emissions transportation is not the only way the Danes are trying to keep the COP15 summit green. Inside the vast hall that houses representatives of 192 nations for the climate conference plenary sessions, energy-efficient LED (light emitting diode) spotlights have been placed in the lighting rigs. "These are LED spots, used for the first time at a large, international, political conference," says Napierski, as he pointed out emissions-reducing features during a tour of the Bella Centre.
COP15 organisers have reduced emissions by 20 percent through a number of measures, including the promotion of public transport, encouraging hotels to provide environmentally certified rooms and laying low-carbon footprint carpets on the venue's floors. They are offsetting the rest of the emissions by investing in a programme to upgrade antiquated brick kilns in Bangladesh with the help of the World Bank. The scheme sees heavily polluting, existing kilns replaced by 20 new energy efficient ones, cutting CO2 emissions and improving the air quality in Dhaka, one of the world's most polluted cities, according to the Danish Ministry of Energy.
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