The LWVUS sent a delegation of eight League leaders to Copenhagen, Denmark as official non-governmental organization dele-gates to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15). The delegation at-tended general and special conference ses-sions to reinforce the League's efforts and positions on curbing global climate change.
"We are thrilled to be sending this dedicated group of members to Copenhagen for this historic conference," said national League President Mary Wilson in a statement be-fore the conference began. "The League be-lieves that global climate change is one of the most serious threats to the environ-ment, health and economy of our nation and our world."
"President Obama's participation in the COP15 meetings and discussions is a clear signal of the seriousness of global climate change, both domestically and internation-ally, and we applaud his commitment," Wil-son stated. "The League is calling on U.S. and world political leaders to cap emissions at 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. We hope that the United States will move beyond its current negotiating position and work for an international agreement that will truly ad-dress this critical issue."
League President Mary Wilson had also spo-ken of the focus of the League's agenda as it applied to Copenhagen: " . . . 1) achieving a broad international agreement with commit-ments, implementation and oversight, 2) cutting emissions to safe levels, and 3) pro-viding critical adaptation and associated as-sistance to countries most in need.
"Here at home, our members will continue their work reminding elected leaders that they need to make the responsible and tough choices that will curb global warming and speed the transition to clean energy alterna-tives," Mary Wilson had concluded.
In another pre-conference statement, Carole Coners the head of the League's delegation had said, "The 192 countries of the world need to produce an effective international agreement based on the best available sci-ence. In addition, it is critically important for our nation to agree to provide substantial as-sistance to needy nations in adapting to cli-mate change."
Midway through the Conference the League's delegation sent a report, which began with an explanation of how we got to this place: "As the second week of the 15th Conference of Parties of the 1992 United Nations Frame-work Convention on Climate Change [the "Rio Conference"] . . . commences in the morning, it is time to see where we are and look head. That ["Rio"] was 17 years ago. All 192 countries of the world signed and ratified that agreement. Developed countries were to re-duce their emissions to 1990 levels by 2000, a year long past. It was voluntary, and in 1997 at the third Conference of the Parties [of "Rio"] held in Kyoto, recognizing that stronger action was needed, commitments were made by those who participated. Those commit-ments in some cases are owed, not yet met. In 2005, further commitments were con-sidered for those who participated in COP3-Kyoto and at COP13-Bali in 2007, the Bali Ac-tion Plan was adopted. It established "The Long-term Cooperative Action" which in two years was to produce a plan to establish full effective implementation of the UNFCCC (1992). Here we are at it, Conference of the Parties 15 of the UNFCCC in Copenhagen."
"The Conference began with some 174 pages of document to be pared down to something less than 10 pages. It commenced with at-odds speeches of more than eight groups of countries supported by speeches of another 20 of their individual Parties . . . As the first week drew to a conclusion, the same na-tional groups and Parties spoke, indicating that things were looking up but expressing the exceptions which concerned them. And what were some of those concerns? The Kyoto Protocol which is binding for those who participated may disappear and be re-placed by a non-binding political state-ment. The developed countries may commit to emissions reductions but not to specific financial support. The developed countries might now be trying to transfer the burden on the developing countries . . . The new document may not require action fast enough and some island and coastal nations would not survive.... Time is short and that is clear to all. It has been 17 years since Rio. The rate of emissions has majorly in-creased since Rio as has the greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere."
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