Update from Copenhagen
By Michael Kelly, Director of Market Development, WLPGA
Into the Maelstrom
During the crucial COP 15 meetings in Copenhagen held from December 7th – 18th, WLPGA had an active presence that reflected the importance that the issue of global climate change has come to represent for the LP Gas industry. This fortnight of negotiations designed to hammer out an agreement on what will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it lapses in 2012 were attended by over 35,000 people from all over the world
The size of the Conference ultimately led the organizers to limit the numbers of people able to enter into the convention center at any one time in order to ensure that some level of productivity was maintained. This caused those not let in, particularly those from the NGO community, to vigorously protest their exclusion in a series of daily often violent protests which added to the confusion and chaos.
At meetings of this size and scope, official negotiations between country negotiators and ambassadors are often closed to most other participants, but hundreds of alternative meetings as well as official side events take place every day, each designed to highlight one aspect of climate change. WLPGA has been actively involved in the UNFCCC process for several years now, working to ensure that accurate information and positions developed within the WLPGA Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) are fed into the negotiations and that the profile of the industry is raised. Even for veterans of similar negotiations, this is a very difficult and confusing process that demands some scientific knowledge of climate change as well as of the economic imperatives and political realities created by the analysis and debate.
Copenhagen Meetings
WLPGA Director of Market Development, Michael Kelly, represented the industry as part of the Business and Industry Non Governmental delegation (BINGO). This delegation which groups together all the business associations and companies that are involved in the negotiations at an intergovernmental level is one of the most powerful of what is known in UN-speak as “civil society major groups”. The other major groups include the Environmental NGO’s (ENGO), Research NGOs (RINGO), Youth groups (Yungos), etc, etc. Each group is allowed a certain amount of official input into the process and access to the negotiators.
Each group also has a certain amount of unofficial access to national negotiators, UNFCCC officials, country delegations and other key groups and individuals in the negotiations. This is where the business groups are clearly first among equals as far as the civil society groups. BINGOs enjoy a huge amount of access, particularly to country delegations who are eager to explain their positions to international business lest they negatively impact potential investment opportunities.
In the maelstrom of the first week, Michael Kelly who was attending these negotiations for the fifth time, represented the LP Gas industry at a number of different events, speaking at the Danish Chamber of Commerce one night and at a side event organized by the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) the next. He held meetings with the US Council of International Business (USCIB), the World Energy Council (WEC), the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), among others. He also attended meetings with negotiating teams from the US, the EU, Japan and the G-77 (a negotiating block of developing countries) as well as with Yvo de Boer the President of the UNFCCC and R.K. Pachauri who heads up the IPCC.
Copenhagen Business Day
Michael was joined in Copenhagen by WLPGA First Vice Presiden Kimball Chen who like others had to endure hours standing in the cold before clearing security to enter the convention center. Kimball attended the negotiations in 2008 in Poznan on behalf of WLPGA and also represented the industry in the World Chambers Congress in Kuala Lumpur in June 2009 where he spoke on the issue of climate change and trade. Kimball also sits on the Global Roundtable on Climate Change and is very well versed on the whole debate.
The Copenhagen Business Day was the third global business day held in parallel to the UNFCCC Conference. This was a day for business leaders to explore, share and project their vision and commitment to implement climate solutions now and for the next four decades and is organized by the WBCSD and ICC. This year it was moderated by Nick Gowing of the BBC and featured Yvo de Boer from UNFCC as well as an impressive line up of business leaders from all over the world (for a full report click here http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop15/bd/).
Kimball’s participation in the event ensured that the voice of the LP Gas industry was heard particularly during the session that focused on leveraging the potential of existing technologies such as LP Gas and measures to maximize low-cost and high impact greenhouse gas emission reduction opportunities quickly. This is part of the overall WLPGA strategy of positioning LP Gas as an “Appropriate Technology” for making emissions reductions immediately.
From the LP Gas industry point of view there are three focus areas emerging from the negotiations:
Black Carbon
This issue is relatively new and was only considered by the IPCC since 2007. Black Carbon is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass, and is both man-made and naturally occurring. Black carbon warms the planet by absorbing heat in the atmosphere and by reducing the ability to reflect sunlight, when deposited on snow and ice. Black carbon is a potent climate forcing agent, estimated by some sources such as Stanford University to be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2). Because black carbon remains in the atmosphere only for a few weeks, reducing black carbon emissions may be the fastest means of slowing climate change in the near-term. The biggest causes of Black Carbon are open biomass burning (usually forest and savanna burning), residential biofuel burned with traditional technologies, diesel engines for transportation and residential coal burned with traditional technologies, all of which can be mitigated by switching to LP Gas.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries to invest in ventures that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionality". CDM has often been criticized for being too complex and difficult to use apart from with large mega-projects such as dams. However, a large part of the discussions in Copenhagen revolved around streamlining the process of project approval for CDM credits and in 2010 we expect the first ever CDM project using LP Gas to reduce emissions to gain approval via Repsol in Peru. This would provide an excellent template for other WLPGA members around the world to follow and open up the prospect of LP Gas projects receiving carbon reduction funding from the UNFCCC.
Reducing Pollution and Greenhouse Gases simultaneously: A win-win
Another issue that received wide attention in the discussions in Copenhagen was the nexus between reducing pollution, primarily caused by vehicular traffic in urban areas, and simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Pollution and its harmful health impacts are immediate, tangible targets not only for the affected populations but also for the public sectors that have to bear the cost burden that these knock on health effects create. Reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously by improving public transport systems, alerting urban planning models in developing world cities or changing the composure of fleet vehicles, offers an effective way to confront both challenges. This presents an excellent pair of arguments for the adoption of cleaner burning, low carbon Autogas as an alternative to traditional fuels and is an issue the WLPGA will be monitoring in the future.
