A final assessment of Copenhagen analyzes the process and breaks the conference into two phases.  It’s worth analyzing whether a world-wide conference run by the UN and political leaders trying to reach a political and economic agreement is the best way to approach this problem.  It’s certainly not the only way to approach a global warming solution.  Immediate action is called for, at this point.

The first phase they analyzed was the first week — chaotic.  Nothing was getting done. The second phase was more political and an accord was arrived at, but that was not the best outcome either.

The outcome of the second phase, when a small group – around 30 – heads of State took the lead, is a minimalist agreement, disappointing in substance, and hectic in process. It proves that the pileup of countries redlines did not leave room for an ambitious agreement: the agreement found is somehow the lowest common denominator. This is not the deal we hoped, but given the context, and especially given the perception that States had of their own national interests, this was probably the best possible deal.

You can download the entire analysis here. (PDF)   It was done by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).

Sonar image of methane plumes rising from the Arctic Ocean floor (Image: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)

The agreements so far are great, but they are static, and non-action based.  The world needs real action on global warming.  That means real leadership, on a country-by-country basis.  Real leaders need to tell citizens what can be done, and how they can be involved, for starters.

The reason we can’t wait for the next COP or the plodding pace of the UN meetings anymore is that we are running out of time.   The methane that is escaping from the Arctic sea, as it warms up,  especially means we don’t have time to wait for the countries to get together again to start cutting emissions.   In the U.S., we need to support the EPA’s immediate regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and other actions like re-forestation (and ending deforestation) to undo the damage of coal plants and all the damage of burning fossil fuels.   This will cost money but we can’t let that be a barrier to action.   Every country has to act now, and stop waiting for a global agreement which may never come, and if it does come, is likely to be too weak.  Individually, countries may arrive at their own conclusions out of necessity like an obvious situation of dwindling resources, or flooding damage, and take stronger action.  The many demands within these conferences have gotten the world only to a stalemate.

Methane is being released from the sea floor due to global warming and no one is sure how much is down there, but scientists know it’s “megatons“.  Depending on how fast this methane is released, this could very quickly accelerate climate change.  See below for new information on the latest methane threat.

New [...]