Copenhagen Explained

Copenhagen - until recently you might be forgiven for thinking that this Danish coastal city was only of interest to castle enthusiasts and Hans Christian Anderson fanatics. And you'd have been right, if culturally insensitive. But open a newspaper, magazine or conversation at the office coffee-point over the last few weeks, and the place seems to find you. The reason is clear. Copenhagen is hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP15, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference, 'Kyoto – The Revenge' and, most often, just: 'Copenhagen').

The Copenhagen talks are the biggest and most important high-level political talks on the subject of the planet's environment that have ever been held. If the Kyoto Protocol meetings on global warming were important, Copenhagen is even more so. That's partly because Copenhagen has to come up with an agreement to replace Kyoto (whose remit – largely unachieved – came to an end this weekend), but mainly because every scientific report that comes out seems to paint an even bleaker picture than the one before about the future of the Earth's climate. If the vast majority of scientific opinion is to be believed (and unless we want to join the likes of dubious leaders who deny the link between HIV and Aids and other dissenters, it probably should be) the planet is in deep trouble. And if the politicians are to be believed (admittedly a harder sell than the scientists, though in this case given credibility by the sheer breadth of political backgrounds represented) only top-level international political consensus can save it.

The question is, of course, whether consensus will be reached.

But, consensus on what? And is consensus likely, or even possible? And why should Christians care, anyway?

Consensus needs to be reached on a number of questions relating to how the world deals with 'greenhouse gases' – gases (most significantly Carbon Dioxide – CO2) that prevent solar heat escaping the Earth's atmosphere. The resulting 'global warming' will cause (and many scientists say has already started causing) not just a raising of temperatures, but imbalances, disturbances and, ultimately, chaos in global temperatures, weather patterns and climate. The result in one part of the world may be warmer weather, but in others it may be more extreme weather phenomena (hurricanes, droughts, excessive rain). Most frightening of all, perhaps, is the possibility that, as global temperatures rise, the planet's ice-caps will melt and sea-levels will rise. Just a comparatively small rise in sea-levels will mean severe flooding and utter devastation for low-lying and coastal regions.

And this is why Christians on the Left should care. Most Christian theologies teach that God's creation is good, to be valued and cherished in and of itself, so caring for creation is an obvious Christian duty. But for Christians who care about the world's poor, the reasons are so much greater. Changes in climate, extreme weather phenomena and the effect such symptoms of climate change will have on global food supplies and sea-levels will certainly affect us in the UK. But their effect will be felt so much more keenly by the global poor. From developing nations like Bangladesh, facing an uncertain future of ever-intensifying floods, eroding the very land from under the poorest communities' feet, to subsistence farmers in Africa and Latin America, it is poor communities with fewer resources than our own at their disposal who will suffer most.

Climate change is a justice issue. And as such should be of key importance to Christians. Copenhagen is important.

As you can probably imagine about talks focusing on nothing less than the climatic and environmental future of the entire planet, there will be much to talk about. But for Yvo De Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (they're the UN group hosting the talks), there are four key questions that really need to be answered:

1. How much are industrialised nations willing to reduce their greenhouse gases?
2. How much are major developing nations like India and China willing to limit the growth of their own emissions?
3. Who is going to pay for proposed programmes in developing countries to cut their own emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change?
4. How is the money involved (and we're talking huge numbers here) going to be managed?

Much has been made of the potential objections countries such as China and India might have to proposals that they significantly curtail their own emissions (they argue, quite reasonably, that developed nations, with their history of industrialisation, are more to blame for the current crisis and should thus foot more of the bill, as it were). But nations like Canada (highlighted in a recent column by The Guardian's George Monbiot as being a massive investor in 'dirty' fossil-fuel-extraction and coincidentally one of the most obstructive governments in previous climate and environment talks) may pose far more of a threat. Even our own country, despite obvious good intentions on the part of the government, is heavily reliant on a growth-obsessed economy. And it is economies of endless growth that continue to deplete the planet's resources while producing effluent, pollution and discharge, only a part of which are greenhouse gases.

More than just 'greenwash', noble promises and encouraging rhetoric, what the world needs is a new approach to society and economics. A more just, more creation-friendly, and, dare we say, a more Godly approach. Copenhagen may be a good place to start in implementing such a change, but it won't be the end.

Jonathan Langley, 07/12/2009