(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial

After the disappointment of Barcelona, some world leaders are spinning optimistic scenarios for a positive outcome of the Conference on Climate Change. But developing countries have sharply criticized the downgrading of expectations for Copenhagen.

     Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, rejected gloomy projections, countering with examples of individual countries' pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But Sudan, speaking for G77 countries which it chairs, and China, have expressed a very different view. The G77 stresses that Copenhagen must adopt the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which implements the legal commitment of industrialised countries to reduce emissions. Instead, the developed countries want to drop this Protocol, creating the present impasse. Without a Kyoto Protocol decision, Copenhagen cannot succeed, despite claims that the conference can somehow "lay the foundation" for a legally-binding agreement.

     Many climate activists now see Copenhagen as an chance to expose business-friendly half-measures, such as carbon offsets and emissions trading, and to step up the fight for non-market policies to help keep coal and oil in the ground. For example, "climate debt" is the idea that rich countries should pay reparations to poor countries for the climate crisis. Such a concept identifies the contrast between the developed capitalist countries which caused the crisis, and the developing world which suffers its worst effects. Even the World Bank explains it this way: over 75% of the damages caused by global warming will be suffered by developing countries, which emit only one-third of greenhouse gases.

     In other words, the imperialist system which has ravaged the planet for over two centuries in pursuit of private profit must now pay the bill. This is the bottom line of the emerging struggle for the future of planet earth.