A year ago, things looked rather promising for the UN climate meeting in Copenhagen. Sealing the climate deal was still a possibility. Several failed negotiation trips later, EU Chairman and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has downplayed expectations drastically.
Swedish Prime Minster Fredrik Reinfeldt's pleaded with US President Barack Obama on his overseas visit in September. Will the United States agree with EU's climate commitment? Photo: Gunnar Seijbold/Government Offices
As chair of the EU, Sweden has a vital role to play at the UN climate meeting in Copenhagen, COP15. Our national goal is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases with 40 percent by 2020, compared with 1990. Carbon dioxide taxes and energy certificates that encourage investments in renewable energy are two other examples of Sweden’s green profile.
But the government has not been trying to show off Sweden as a “model country” when preparing for Copenhagen. Instead, Reinfeldt’s focus has — quite naturally — been on EU as one unit, one major climate player.
And so far, EU is the most ambitious of the major participants coming to Cop15. The union has agreed on cutting emissions of carbon dioxide with 20 percent by 2020. Sweden has strived hard for an additional reduction of 10 percent. Now, the EU will do that only if a legally binding agreement is reached in Copenhagen.
Closing the deal would be a gigantic global effort, with the United States, India and China being vital for success. But during the fall of 2009, the hopes for a legal agreement have drastically waned.
Disappointment
As Fredrik Reinfeldt trotted the globe to influence world leaders on EU’s behalf, "setback" and "stalemate" soon became key words for summing up his efforts. The United States, where the senate stalls climate legislation, was the first major blow.
“The impression we’ve gotten is that the kind of legally binding agreements we’ve reached within the EU will not be a possibility,” Reinfeldt said upon returning from his visit there in September. (But despite the US senate, President Obama recently launched his own climate goals — cutting emissions of greenhouse gases with 17 percent by 2020, compared with 2005. That is, however, a much smaller cut than the EU, and Fredrik Reinfeldt requests).
Without strong commitments from the United States, there is considerably less pressure on India and China to present concrete climate goals. And indeed, after his meeting with China at the end of November, Reinfeldt was disappointed once more.
“Their view is that developed parts of the world have a historical responsibility to solve the issue. And we’ve met that by arguing that the rich countries can no longer control the climate development themselves,” he commented.
Not enough?
Reinfeldt has continued to criticize passive countries, calling their goals inadequate if global warming is to be curbed. However, many find even EU’s goals insufficient. The EU uses 450 parts per million (ppm) as an upper limit for how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can take without global warming galloping. But a strong environmental movement pinpoints 350 ppm, not 450 ppm, as the maximum.
A 350 bike manifestation for the climate in the Swedish city of Malmö. Photo: davidwargert.net/flickr
And the government has been heavily criticized — in some cases, quite literally. In October, Swedish Greenpeace activists dumped 18 tons of coal outside the government building Rosenbad, to protest against state-owned energy company Vattenfall.
Over the last decade, Vattenfall has invested in coal power plants in Europe — major climate baddies. According to Greenpeace, carbon dioxide emissions from these plants amount to 100 million tons: twice the amount of the Swedish total. Greenpeace, WWF and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation all state that it’s impossible for Reinfeldt to work with credibility for a strong climate deal without steering Vattenfall toward eco-friendliness — asap.
Differing views
Ellie Cijvat is chairman of the Swedish branch of environmental organization Friends of the Earth. She’s also quite disappointed with Sweden’s role this far. ”On the one hand, I can understand that Sweden is chairing the EU, and therefore must represent the whole union”, she says. But as concerns concrete proposals and real decision-making, we haven’t seen much action. Rich countries must take much stronger measures and provide greater support for the adjustment of poorer countries, and in those areas we haven’t seen any progress."
At the start of the Swedish Presidency of the EU, a number of Swedish and international organizations demanded "Climate leadership now!" Photo: Greenpeace/Christian Åslund
Thea Ohlander Arfwidsson is another young Swede with a green heart — but a differing perspective. Serving as an expert in one of eleven international groups trying to find common ground before Cop15, she has first-hand experience of climate negotiations. Despite the setbacks, she doesn’t find the Swedish delegation discouraged.
“I personally thought that we’d be further ahead in the negotiations by now, especially since we’ve had so many preparatory meetings,” she says. “But as for the outcome, it’s still possible to have a positive outlook — a political treaty can be reached. However, a legally binding agreement, as was hoped for earlier, is perhaps less likely.”
And Ohlander Arfwidsson still sees Sweden as a forerunner. “All countries could always do more, but I think we have an ambitious environmental agenda, and a developed way of thinking about climate issues. We’re trying to keep a high profile,” she says.
Anna Sandelin
Anna Sandelin is a freelance journalist based in Stockholm. As for Cop15, she’s hoping for the best, but expecting the worst…
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