COP15 Day 11

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 11 of the 12-day conference.

With only two days of the conference remaining, the largest announcement on long-term climate change funding came with the United State’s announcement of a $100 billion fund. Though details on the exact nature of the fund — US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton avoided specifics in the announcement —the size of the fund is of critical importance to the negotiations, where previous declared amounts have been derided as inadequate. The announcement, however, comes with a contentious condition: that China open itself to international monitoring of emissions reductions. Given China’s protests on the basis of sovereignty, the US push toward transparency has been one of the public sticking points in COP15 negotiations. With all leaders are still scheduled to attend with 24 hours, the pressure to resolve the dispute is considerable.

Another contentious issue has been the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, seen by developing nations as ensuring their relatively protected position on emission reduction. Previous symptoms of the divide were seen in a walk-out and ultimately an inability to create a single draft agreement. Recently, however, COP15 delegates addressed the paralyzing nature of the dispute directly by creating two negotiation “tracks”, one on Kyoto and one for the Climate Change Convention proper. Whether this and the ongoing negotiations on international monitoring will ultimately produce an agreement in time for the arrival of all world leaders remains to be seen, but Kyoto’s prospects are beginning to look more promising.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has already arrived at COP15 but, as The Globe and Mail reported, has made a point of maintaining a low profile. Given the flak taken over Canada’s current emission reduction pledges and the international attention on projects like Alberta’s oil sands, the move is hardly surprising. There had been rumours that US President Barak Obama might not attend at all, but while American officials have reiterated that he would appear on Friday, they have suggested that observers should restrain their expectations. High or low, a leader’s profile can’t always match up to expectations.