Dr Per Stig Møller, Danish Foreign Minister, was Environment Minister in Rio in 1993. Now he’s looking forward to the big climate showdown in Copenhagen in 2009, when optimists hope a post-2012 framework will be agreed.
Møller has a six step agenda for getting to 2009.
First, increase awareness worldwide and engage all levels of society. Second, find a way to get all major emitters to the negotiating table, while ensuring the richest take the lead. Third, develop common standards, regulations and incentives that promote low carbon growth. Fourth, invest in new technologies. Fifth, set a price for carbon that includes the full social costs of emissions. Sixth, spend more money helping developing countries adapt.
All well and good.
But where are the specifics? The Minister wants stabilization, but doesn’t talk about what target he favours – 450ppm, 550ppm, higher? He acknowledges there’s going to be a huge fight about how we will bear the brunt of cutting emissions, but doesn’t say who should get scarce allocations from the carbon budget. And he skates over how developing countries are expected to cope as their climate deteriorates.
Møller promotes the role a foreign ministries in getting us an agreement in 2009. Their networks can build coalitions, he says, bolster the multilateral system, create awareness through public diplomacy, and create a platform for the integration of trade, development, and environmental policies.
They can also, he claims, promote a ‘shared vision’ of what a post-2012 framework will look like and build a shared sense of how we’re going to get there.
But does that shared vision yet exist? And if it does, when will the Minister and his counterparts share it with the great unwashed?
