Copenhagen Day 1: We’ve already come a long way in making the case for an ambitious and fair deal

By Andrew Pakes

After Saturday’s big turnout on the Wave the action now shifts to Copenhagen both in the negotiating rooms and amongst climate campaigners who will be staging their own procedures in parallel to the official discussions. Over the next two weeks, SERA and LabourList will be monitoring the action and bringing you daily updates on what it means for Labour.

In reality Copenhagen is now less about a getting a formal deal on carbon emissions and more about getting political buy-in from the major players. Without the big players agreeing on a way forward it doesn’t matter if any deal is signed or not. So, is all the fuss worth it?

The biggest challenge over the next few days will be creating the momentum necessary to keep the talks on track. That is why the Wave and all the other public displays of support around the world were so important.

The Government has undertaken a huge effort over the last 2 years to put – and keep – climate change on the international agenda and to build the kind of global consensus necessary to get a political deal out of the next few weeks.

We need an agreement in Copenhagen precisely because the stakes are so high. Extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels and food shortages are not some far off disaster but part of the present. It will take a combination of political will and negotiating skill to get agreement around the central demand to limit temperature rises to 2 degrees.

Success at the talks will depend on agreement around the values inherent in any global approach to tackling climate change. In this, the Government has already set out the progressive case for action on climate change calling for an agreement that is ambitious, effective and fair.

Given domestic media coverage on the issue it is easy to forget that these values are still contested in many quarters. The British delegation will have to work hard to create an effective consensus but there are reasons to be hopeful. The European Union is a powerful voice in the talks, something the Tories like to overlook.

The election of a Labor Government in Australia and President Obama in America have also helped tip the balance in the developed world towards a new deal. It is incredible to think that just 18 months ago George Bush and John Howard were still large on the international stage. The UK Government, through the excellent work of Douglas Alexander, has also led the way in ensuring that the negotiations focus on ensuring a fair deal for the developing world.

Ultimately, though, Copenhagen is about ambition: global ambition to face up to the challenges of creating a low carbon economy whilst still allowing the new emerging nations to develop their own industrial base; economic ambition to harness innovation and our own resources in pursuit of new green jobs; and progressive ambition to see a transition that is just and fair.