Two weeks of wrangling and grandstanding at the United Nations climate change conference ended with the “Copenhagen Accord”, which was a paper-thin cover-up of what was a near complete failure, though it does enable the process to move forward. The outcome calls into question whether the community of nations can, in fact, craft an effective response to climate change. The unending negotiations proved unable to overcome divisions between the developed and developing countries.

The more urgent climate protection becomes, the more difficult the environment for necessary political decisions, since climate change interacts with other important and complex fields of policymaking. In the end, the weak “Copenhagen Accord” salvaged by the US and the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) did not offer the world anything new and deferred most of the major decisions to Mexico, where next year’s COP 16 will be held. There is in fact no deadline for transforming the accord into a binding deal. In the meantime, science tells us the window is narrowing – but all is not lost and fast action could still prevent the worst.
 
Since Heinrich Böll Stiftung is permanently working on the topic “Ecology and Energy”, there are different publications by HBS related to climate change and its impacts available. Please, find here also information on the hbs strategic work  concerning the issue.

South View:

• After Copenhagen, the Way Forward
• Copenhagen: Climate of Mistrust 
• Neither Fish nor Fowl
• Climate Change Negotiation – Civil Society Perspective.
  

• Climate Change Adaptation from a Gender Perspective
• Climate Change violates Human Rights  
• BÖLL THEMA: Climate change and justice – on the road to Copenhagen
• The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework – The right to development in a climate constrained world
• Bali, Poznan, Copenhagen – Triple jump towards a new quality of climate policy?
• Substance or Greenwash Show? The Time for Half Measures is Over