Reporter Eric RegulyKevin Van Paassen
Audio excerpts
On the protests:
There's several thousand protesters outside the Bella Center. The Bella Center is this massive convention centre. It's the size of an airport on the outskirts of Copenhagen. They're trying to make a point that the leaders who arrive tomorrow - there's 115 heads of state and government arriving tomorrow including Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, Gordon Brown, the usual suspects are coming here tomorrow - and they want to make a point that the planet is burning up alive and they've got to get their acts together. The problem is the security is so tight now that they're not being that effective. We've heard that some protesters have been tear-gassed, many several hundred probably have been arrested over the last week or so ... It's hard work. Also, the weather here is not great. It's cold and it's wet.
On Harper's arrival and what's at stake:
There's 115 heads of state and government are arriving starting tonight. Stephen Harper arrives tomorrow and they will have a lot of work to do. The deadline for a new global agreement of some sort, stress on some sort, is Friday, but there are huge, huge issues outstanding. The negotiators actually worked all through last night. A friend of mine went in there and they didn't break apparently until 7 in the morning. That's how much work is left to do. A couple of the outstanding issues, I'll just go over them quickly. One is finance. A lot of work needs to be done on the short-term funding and the long-term funding. The short-term fund is about $10-billion. That's called a quick-start fund. That would help pay for adaptation and mitigation in the developing countries, in other words, fighting climate change. The bigger issue is the long-term fund, which would be about $100-billion a year. The funding is not in place. The mechanism is not in place. There are worries from many countries, including China, about sovereignty, in other words, sovereignty intrusion. In other words, who's going to administer these funds? They have to be checked to make sure you're getting value for money. Who's going to be doing that? Is it the World Bank? Is it another global body? A lot of these countries don't want people poking in their backyards to find out how this money is being spent and where. That's one big issue ... Many countries have set out their emissions targets but many have not ... Another issue is whether the Kyoto Protocol, which is the existing international climate treaty, whether that is to be extended or not. It's supposed to end in 2012. There's a proposal to add five years to it. The developed world, especially Canada and the United States, don't want any part of that. They want a new, global, all-inclusive treaty, because Kyoto only covers the industrialized world. The rich countries want one that covers the whole world and notably China.
On how Canada can salvage its tarnished reputation
It's no secret that Canada ... is seen as one of the dinosaurs here. It's won the Fossil of the Day award six times running. I'm told it's the leading contender for the Colossal Fossil Award, which is awarded by a coalition of environmental groups for the country that does the most to disrupt or stall the talks. Canada's emissions target is fairly low by industrialized country standards. It does not appear to have a plan to meet its reduction cuts, at least one it's willing to talk about. They're not very helpful at press conferences. Jim Prentice gives pretty standard bland un-detailed answers to quite specific questions, so that's a problem. So it hasn't got a good reputation. Having said that, however, Canada could come out of this looking a little bit better. One thing Canada has is money. We're in recession, but our recession is not as bad as many countries and I think if Canada came forward and offered to put some money on the table on either the smaller quick-start fund or make some sort of commitment for the longer term fund, it could come out of here looking better. It's certainly not going to come out looking like a hero. That day is gone.