Copenhagen Climate Summit Breakdown

The Climate Summit is coming up soon. It starts on December 7 and will go until December 18. As a full time sustainable MBA student as well as being employed full time, I have a difficult time keeping up with all of the things going on the world right now: health care reform, the economic slump (is it really on an upturn?), climate change; this is just to name a few things. I would personally like to have cheat sheets to all of these things that I could trust. The breakdown of who, what, why, where, and how is incredibly useful to me. So, I broke down the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference for myself and for my readers.

When: December 7 - December 18
Where: Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark
Who: Over 5,000 delegates from the UNFCCC participating countries plus over 10,000 officials, members of the media, advisers, and activists.
Why: I mean, come on...I think we all know at this point that something drastic in climate change policy needs to occur here. Also, some of the provisions in the Kyoto Protocol will begin expiring in 2012 and on top of that, they don't really go to the extremes needed for the required results.
How: 11 days of talks, they've gotta be able to figure out something! You can get involved by staying informed; signing petitions like the one at Seal The Deal, Greenpeace, or Friends of the Earth; or add a personal message through Friends of the Earth Climate Capsule.
What:
Topics of discussion

• The importance of developed countries taking the lead on climate change policy and GHG reductions. The European Union are proposing to reduce their GHG by 30% of 1990 levels by 2020.
• Developing countries should, together reduce their emissions 15-30%.
  
• The Kyoto Protocol doesn't cover international flight and shipping; the new agreement needs to.
• How will countries adapt to the inevitable pressures of climate change?
• Research and development is necessary for forward momentum. The potential for change with green technologies are tremendous.
• A reformation of Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism.
• Building a carbon market.
• Developed countries' role in supporting developing countries.

What might happen from these talks:

• The U.S. and China step up and push for a comprehensive and aggressive agreement.
• The current targets are agreed upon and no stepping up occurs.
• A limited deal of mixed targets occurs.
• The Kyoto Protocol is extended.
• The talks are prolonged into 2010.
• They all puff up their chests, talk about this amazing agreement that just happened, and then do nothing.

So, this is my own personal breakdown of what I understand to be happening. It's a huge deal, a fate-of-the-world big deal. It's important that the United States show up in full support of creating and meeting ambitious goals with this agreement.

There was a lot of information out there about COP-15 so, please, if something has been misrepresented or if there's a gap that needs to be filled, comment on this post and I will incorporate it into the main post (with credit to you and a link to your blog).