COP15 Day 9

To make sense of all the information coming out of the COP15 conference in Copenhagen, Flow will be running a series of daily blog entries to keep you up-to-date on the latest news from the largest climate change event in the world. Today is day nine of the 12-day conference.

As always it’s a busy slate for the delegates at COP15, with today’s agenda including three meetings by the African Group, discussions on biodiversity, private sector involvement in emissions reductions and improving public awareness. The entire conference is moving forward under the cloud of a walk-out protest yesterday by African delegates , signalling the depths of the rift between developing and developed nations.

The gap between developed and developing nations was also highlighted in the release of a “blueprint” that outlines three options for long-term climate aid — rather than short-term financing of the kind announced earlier by the EU. While this aid would ultimately assist poorer nations in their efforts to combat the effects of climate change, the blueprint doesn’t include any financial commitments.

Meanwhile, Japan’s prime minister is set to reveal $10 billion US in climate change funding when he and other world leaders arrive toward the end of the week. And China, a developing nation whose growing economy has placed it among the world’s largest powers, has indicated it will reduce the amount of funding it intends to seek, freeing up funds for poorer nations.

As a side event to COP15, today will include a debate on the implications of climate change on international security. Because of its destabilizing effect, climate change has the potential to increase the likelihood of global conflicts. Potential issues include increasingly scarce water and food, mass immigrations from affected areas, increased health risks such as heat waves and disease spread by insects, and the general fact of global uncertainty over the planet’s future condition. Along with a separate panel debate on adaptation projects in coastal areas, where flooding risks provide another real danger of climate change, today’s discussions will be as much about dealing with the concrete dangers of climate change as they are about securing concrete commitments from member nations.

COP15 Day 10