Welcome

Welcome from Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s Minister for Climate and Energy

COP 15 – time to choose a climate-friendly future

The world has come to a crossroads here in Copenhagen. This is the year, this is the month, this is the time where the world will have to decide whether we will continue doing business as usual and ignore the challenges that climate change presents to us, or foster the necessary agreement to curb emissions at the necessary scale while enhancing adaptation efforts worldwide.

All evidence from science suggests we need to develop a more sustainable way of living. In 2050, our planet will be inhabited by nine billion people. And, of those, eight billion will be living in what we now call developing countries. In order for all to have access to the same resources and economic growth, we are forced to find a better way to make use of the world’s resources. We cannot continue polluting our planet and rely on fossil fuels the way we do today. That is simply not viable. Scientists tell us that now is the time to act; because if we don’t do something today, it will become increasingly expensive to carry out the necessary measures in the future. In short: the cost of delaying action against climate change will only keep rising the longer we wait.

Since the Bali Roadmap was laid out in December 2007, delegates from all over the world have been busy negotiating a deal, countless meetings have been held, but now it’s crunch time – the deal must be sealed. In Copenhagen we must lay the foundation for a new beginning – a low carbon economy. 192 countries are represented in Copenhagen and we need to have the courage, at this historic moment in time, to direct the world onto a sustainable development path. Denmark’s goal is clear and unambiguous: we insist on an ambitious, globally-binding agreement. We insist on a deal that will keep the global temperature from rising to dangerous levels and a deal that’s ambitious on all the four building blocks agreed in Bali.

Denmark has also made a great effort to steer towards a low-carbon society. For example, 19% of our energy and 30% of our electricity stem from renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and biomass. Indeed, one of the first sights delegates will see, as they fly into Copenhagen, is the wind turbines in Oresund. Denmark has also taken great measures to ensure this COP is the greenest, most climate-friendly COP possible. For example, the conference will be carbon neutral as emissions related to the COP will be offset through a clean development mechanism project in Bangladesh. All public transport is free of charge for delegates during the conference period. Instead of gifts for the delegates the Danish government has chosen to spend the money on providing climate scholarships for 15 bright students across the world. And finally, at the Bellacenter, it is also possible to see examples of the famous Danish clean tech, and I encourage everybody to take a look: it illustrates the way solutions to combat climate change are here, we only need to act – we need to choose which way to go.

Therefore I express my sincerest hopes that, at this conference in Copenhagen, the world will act together to solve the challenge of our generation and that the deal will mark that the world has chosen to change lanes and gone down the road towards a low-carbon economy. An ambitious deal is necessary – it’s affordable and it’s doable!

For more information please visit:
www.kemin.dk