Toban Black

(That image was cropped out of a photo taken by Jody B.)

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The COP15 talks in Copenhagen have been called “Brokenhagen” and “Failenhagen.” One write-up in The Guardian is titled “Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure.”

Here is some selected material about the betrayals and the sell-outs in Copenhagen -

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Around the end of the talks

Civil society organization statements -
“US undermines climate talks with bullying tactics and backroom deals”
“Civil Society Denounces U.S. Plan for Fast-Tracking Warming, Worsening Humanitarian Crisis, and Fueling Ecological Collapse”

A statement from La Via Campesina -
“Traders failed in Copenhagen. The future lies in people’s hands”
(Although I support some of the groups and organizations who protested out there, I wouldn’t call the street demonstrations “power in Copenhagen.”)

A video -
“Bill McKibben reacts to climate deal announcement at flash rally”
“350.org founder and author, Bill McKibben offers his perspective of the end of the Copenhagen climate talks amidst a rousing rally to shame world leaders for not stepping up to the plate with a real deal.”

George Monbiot in The Guardian -
“Copenhagen negotiators bicker and filibuster while the biosphere burns”
… “the chaotic, disastrous denouement of a chaotic and disastrous climate summit”

Johann Hari in The Huffington Post -
“They didn’t seal the deal; they sealed the coffin”
(I don’t agree with every word in the article. In particular, I’m not so convinced that an International Environmental Court is nearly as viable as Hari claims — which isn’t to say that binding targets couldn’t work somehow.)

Jamie Henn on the It’s Getting Hot In Here blog -
“Obama’s climate sham[e]: Empty rhetoric in Copenhagen speech”

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(Photo by Robert vanWaarden)

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Earlier in the talks

A video (from December 17th) -
“Hopenhagen occupied by Camp for Climate Action, called out for GREENWASHING”
“UK activist group Climate Camp demands real solutions to climate change while occupying corporately sponsored ‘Hopenhagen’ at the Cop15 starting at 8pm on a sub-freezing Thursday night in the heart of downtown Copenhagen. Climate Camp exposed the corporate ‘green-washing’ that is being advertised and sold to the world by green-capitalists as solutions to the global climate crisis.”
(The Hopenhagen marketing was plastered around, well beyond that spot in Copenhagen.  Apparently a lot of Hopenhagen marketing was on display elsewhere in Copenhagen, during the talks there.  The same ad campaign also was circulated around other areas of the world — in magazines, for instance.)

Aafrench on the It’s Getting Hot in Here blog (on December 12th) -
“System change, not climate change!”

Jennifer Krill and Adrian Wilson on the It’s Getting Hot in Here blog (on December 9th) -
“COP-15: Climate justice for the poor, or backroom deals by the rich?”
(I haven’t followed the links in there.)

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The Climate Thieves

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Before the talks in Copenhagen

Brian Tokar in CounterPunch (around December 5th) -
“Repackaging Copenhagen“:
“Will There be a Climate Agreement?”
(I appreciated most, if not all, of that article when I first read it.  I can’t remember if I read through the whole article, but I have appreciated other writing from Tokar, so I have confidence in this piece.)

Oscar Reyes in the New Internationalist (in early December) -
“Taking care of business”
“The world’s biggest corporations have hijacked the UN climate talks. That’s bad news for our future.”
(I don’t think I’ve read the entire article.)