COP 15 and the Future of the Human Race
11th December 2009
On day three of the COP 15, Madlen King, LRQA’s Global Climate Change Manager, joined Sean Cuthbert and Dr Anne-Marie Warris at the conference.
Below is Sean Cuthbert’s Blog:
At the end of Day 2 I was witness to a small(ish) but loud protest in the main hall of COP15 conference. Although I couldn’t understand what the protest was about, one aspect of this protest was clear – news cameras clearly outnumbered the protestors. At the start of Day 3 it was clear that what caused the spontaneous protest was reaction to a supposedly leaked document . As the initial reactions gave way to calmer voices, it became clear that the ‘leak’ was in fact non-existent. The speed with which this ‘scandal’ simply died away speaks to the seriousness and purpose of the majority of attendees at COP15. As I walk amongst the thousands of delegates, negotiators, media personnel, and fellow observers the mood is sombre and purposeful. This conference is not about tree-hugging, hemp clothing, and dreadlocks – it is about the future of the human race.
On Day 1 I had the fortune to meet with Mr. Paul Genoa, Director of Policy Development for the Nuclear Energy Institute (http://www.nei.org/). Since our meeting I have been intrigued about how nuclear energy can play a role in mitigating climate change, so I asked Paul for an interview to talk about the NEI’s role and the challenges facing the nuclear energy industry. Paul graciously accepted and we met for over an hour this morning, where we talked about a wide range of topics from the “Four Challenges” to the fuel cycle and climate change. With the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) recent decision to include Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act, the US has effectively labelled GHGs as harmful to human health; thus sending a very strong message to those industries with high GHG emissions. Please visit www.businessassurance.com/copenhagen for the podcast of the full interview on the 16th December.
Is climate change real? I have talked to this question in my previous blogs, but what about all the news stories about the hacked emails and distorted temperature data? Has ‘Climategate’ derailed the COP15 climate talks? Absolutely not. Cooler heads are prevailing. The serious work is still being done and measured responses to Climategate are entering the mainstream media.
Read Anne-Maries Warris’s Blog
Read Madlen King’s Blog
View the entire Blog series at www.copenhagencountdown.blogspot.com