Mark Hertsgaard’s Blog

by Mark Hertsgaard, for The Nation

We have entered the post-Copenhagen era of climate politics—but just what that means is still very much undecided. The summit was widely regarded as humanity’s last good chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. It plainly fell short of that goal …

The full article is available at my website: http://www.markhertsgaard.com/articles/246

by Mark Hertsgaard, for VANITYFAIR.com

Well, so much for Hopenhagen.

Organizers of the U.N. climate summit had proposed that upbeat respelling of the Danish capital when negotiations began two weeks ago, and one saw it everywhere in Copenhagen: in metro station advertisements, activist press releases and newspaper headlines. But the cheery new name did not survive the talks themselves. In the end, Hopenhagen became Nopenhagen.
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by Mark Hertsgaard, for VANITYFAIR.com

He came, he saw, he disappointed.

As President Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning for the last day of the U.N. climate summit, all eyes were upon him. Only Obama, the argument went, had the power and prestige to break the deadlock at this summit, widely regarded as humanity’s last good chance to preserve a livable climate. But hopes that the president would bring something new to Copenhagen, that the U.S. position would move closer to what science says is required to avoid catastrophic climate change, were dashed by the president’s surprisingly lackluster remarks.
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by Mark Hertsgaard, for The Nation Blogs

The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao will meet one-on-one with President Barack Obama soon in Copenhagen to try to reach agreement on a new international climate treaty, according to He Yafei, the vice chairman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“Yes, I believe so,” responded He in the hallways of Copenhagen’s Bella Center, when he was asked if Wen and Obama, the heads of government of the world’s two climate superpowers, would meet to resolve outstanding differences.
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by Mark Hertsgaard, for VANITYFAIR.com

Bright yellow with black letters, the first placards I saw at the massive climate rally in Copenhagen on Saturday said, Bla Bla Bla—Action Now! and Nature Doesn’t Compromise. Handed out free to all comers by Greenpeace, they bobbed up and down in a sea of humanity that was gathered beneath the austerely beautiful, neo-baroque palace housing Denmark’s parliament. But the placards also crystallized the vast gap between what science requires and what—so far—the world’s governments have been talking about doing here at the Copenhagen climate summit.
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by Mark Hertsgaard, for The Nation Blogs

Big news from Copenhagen Friday, where the divide between big emitters and at-risk nations deepened, threatening the prospects of reaching a climate deal for president Obama and other heads of state to sign when they arrive at the summit next week.

In a day of major developments, the Alliance of Small Island Nations put forth a radically tougher proposal for confronting climate change than the US, China and other major emitters favor. The AOSIS proposal, which calls for temperature rise not to exceed 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, ran counter to a separate text released today by the chairmen of the summit that called for smaller but still significant cuts. Meanwhile, activists prepared for a worldwide day of demonstrations on Saturday that organizer Bill McKibben of 350.org said were “explicitly endorsing” the AOSIS proposal and would involve “millions of people” and 3,000 actions around the world.
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by Mark Hertsgaard, for The Nation Blogs

The Copenhagen climate summit just keeps getting bigger and bigger. As a journalist who has covered the climate story for twenty years now, including the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 that produced the climate treaty being updated in Copenhagen, I can’t recall a moment more filled with genuine possibility and hope. To be sure, there are a thousand ways things could still go wrong in Copenhagen. But make no mistake: momentum is building, governments are feeling the heat and Copenhagen could bring an historic breakthrough—if the public pressure that got us this far is sustained over the next fourteen days.

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So the Copenhagen summit has now begun, and it looks like it’s
going to be a hell of a news event and maybe—though this is
much less certain—even produce a real breakthrough.  I’ll be
there from Dec 10 morning through the conclusion on Dec 18,
departing on the 19th.  I’ll  be covering events for The Nation,
Vanity Fair and Marketplace radio and perhaps L’espresso, as
well as gathering material for the Epilogue to my book.

Copenhagen, here I come!