Coping with Hopenhagen: COP15 begins

Today marked the opening of what has been arguably tipped as the final opportunity to curb global greenhouse gases and further prevent the extinction of plant and animal species from the effects of climate change.

The first day of the COP15 conference, aptly nicknamed 'Hopenhagen' by many, opened with a positive mood of change, however ending with many key issues left to be resolved over the two-week conference.

With 110 heads of state and government attending the final and most crucial days of the event, conference president Connie Hedegaard believes the cornerstone to reaching an agreement will be in developing a financial partnership between public and private organisations in order to raise funds to assist poorer countries to counteract climate change.

"This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we got a new and better one. If ever," Hedegaard said in prepared remarks.

It is believed U.S. President Barack Obama's last-minute decision to attend the final days of the conference is a sign that progress towards reaching a universal treaty towards combating climate change is a strong possibility in Copenhagen.

Although the next five days of the conference will emphasise on the fine tuning of a draft version of what will ultimately be the successor to the Kyoto Protocol (if successful), all definitive and crucial decisions will take place within the second week of discussions when both environment ministers and the 192 predicted nation representatives around the world will arrive in Denmark.

 

Author: Diva Rodriguez

Image credit: america.gov