DAILY NEWS - Beyond Kyoto

A former Danish environment minister doubts that the international climate summit in Copenhagen in December will result in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and proposes additional talks.

The new Obama administration in the USA needs more time to “get their act together”, says Svend Auken, who is presently a Danish MP. He therefore proposes another meeting to take place six months after the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for December in Copenhagen.

“It’s going to be very difficult for Obama to get any major changes through congress in only nine months, but in order to have any success we need some certainty from the US,” he says.

While this judgement of the upcoming event is somewhat out of tune with the positive atmosphere that has surrounded the Copenhagen summit to date, Auken makes no apologies.

“I am going to discuss the political obstacles we will face in the lead up to Copenhagen and it will not be a very optimistic assessment,” he said at the opening of Beyond Kyoto.

Ensuring that the United States ratifies the Copenhagen protocol is one of three platforms that according to Auken will need to be addressed in order to guarantee success at the summit.

The other two are for the European Union to adopt a leadership role in Copenhagen, and for money to be made available for developing countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.

However, Auken is not optimistic in either of these areas, largely due to the current global financial situation, which he thinks is impeding what should be a “truly aggressive line” on climate change.

“We need to start getting realistic about what we can achieve in Copenhagen. We need to move away from the polite temptation to avoid the really difficult problems we currently face,” he said. “We are not on the right path, and neither are most other countries.”

Environmentalist, politician

Svend Auken is often credited with Denmark’s divergence from foreign oil dependence, to become a thriving exporter of renewable energy. He was also the architect of Denmark’s world class environment policies of the 1990’s.

Largely through Svend’s persuasion and influence, the Danish parliament raised taxes on energy to encourage conservation and established standards to support more efficient buildings.

Auken currently holds the position of EU-affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats, particularly with regards to issues of the environment and climate change.

By Gemma Black