Copenhagen backgrounder - A roundup of pre-conference reading

Copenhagen kicks off this week and I still can't figure out whether or not it's going to matter. It seems like we're not going to get any sort of binding agreement out of it though their should be a fair amount of attention paid to the climate change issue. We'll be covering Copenhagen here at Current both on the Current Green Blog and here on the Current News Blog. I'll be focusing more on the policy side of things.

So, on that, what do you need to know going into Copenhagen? Here's some background reading for you.

Newsweek offers a good overview on the threat posed by political inaction going into the conference. Power Failure: Politicians are fiddling while the world burns. What's a voter to do? Its author, James Hansen, says even Obama may not be able to bring about the change in climate change policy we're looking for.

Our planet, with its remarkable array of life, is in imminent danger of crashing. Yet our politicians are not dashing forward. They hesitate; they hang back. Therefore it is up to you. As in other struggles for justice against powerful forces, it may be necessary to take to the streets to draw attention to injustice. Civil resistance may be our best hope. It is crucial for all of us, especially young people, to get involved. This will be the most urgent fight of our lives.

The Economist's backgrounder is locked behind a paywall, so I can't link you to that one. I can however offer you their handy chart of how much different countries residents would be willing to pay to fix climate change.

Foreign Policy magazine has a feature called "Who Killed Copenhagen? An FP Whodunit." It features a list of folks who've made the official results of the conference possibly moot, including Harry Reid, Wen Jiabao, and Obama.

Obama's role in delivering the bad news was a sad spectacle, but not really a surprise. It marked the culmination of a year in which climate has all but slipped off the president's agenda. While a host of European leaders, from Gordon Brown to Angela Merkel, have publicly stated their intention to attend Copenhagen and committed to carbon reductions, Obama has stonewalled.

One of my favorite blogs, Crooked Timber, has a more optimistic take, pointing to signs that might mean a possible good outcome from Copenhagen and the year to follow.

# Obama’s commitment to a 17 per cent (rel 2005) target, which essentially puts the Administration’s credibility behind Waxman-Markey
# China’s acceptance of a quantitative emissions target, based on emissions/GDP ratios, but implying a substantial cut relative to business as usual
# The change of government in Japan, from do-little LDP to activist DPJ
# EU consensus on the need for stronger action
# Acceptance of the principle of compensation for developing countries, and acceptance by countries like India that they should take part in a global agreement and argue for compensation

Oh, and what is "Climategate", the conveniently-timed news story eating up the precious oxygen in the news cycle? Newsweek's got that covered too.

Few of us would escape with reputations intact if our e-mail were made public, and the scientists ensnared in "climategate" are no exception. Writing "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years … to hide the decline" makes Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, who typed that in 1999, look as if he is pulling a fast one to conceal a trend toward global cooling. And when another scientist wrote that "I can't see either of these papers being in the next I.P.C.C. report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow—even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" it looks like a blatant attempt to censor opposing views.

That's about all I've got - though if you see any other good ones out there let us know. Leah at Current Green has posted a list of sources to follow during Copenhagen, so make sure to check that out. She'll be doing a fifteen live webcast on Current Green at 9:15 PST every day rounding up what's happening in Denmark.

Oh wait, I lied, one more link. From FP Passport: Copenhagen prostitutes offer freebies to climate change delegates.

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