At the same time, the texts that are currently under discussion within the COP 15 (Conference of Heads of State) are extremely weak: no financial commitment or ridiculous sums, no agreement on limiting global warming below 1.5 ° as suggested by small island countries supported by a hundred of developing countries, no legally binding agreement, and the risk that the United States is set apart from the rest of the world. Already the South rejects any agreement on the basis of these documents.
The risk is important that the summit ends with an ordinary political declaration which will be a list of good intentions and not an ambitious and binding text.

For the delegations of the European Left present in Copenhagen, a good agreement should include all countries, be quantified and legally binding. We recall that our demand is 40% reduction in CO2 emissions (compared to 1990) by 2020 in developed countries and that we are fighting the carbon emissions trade principle. We are in favor of a financial and technological support to developing countries that could be managed by the UN. To finance these transformation measures we propose to reduce military budgets and to introduce taxation on the financial transactions.

We are committed to two fundamental principles: that of common but differentiated responsibility, which emphasizes the historical responsibility of industrialized nations and the right of poor countries to develop while taking into account the current climate urgency, and the right to clean energy for all (with the framework of sustainable development and solidarity).

Therefore, particularly at European level, we are promoting a strong energy public sector, development of public transportations and of public rail freight transport, as well as a massive plan for thermal insulation of buildings. These transformations cannot be achieved without public pressure on European institutions and the questioning of a series of rules imposed by the Lisbon Treaty.

To take up the climate challenge and initiate a real ecological alternative, we must remove from capitalism, at least, the common goods of humanity.  

The 13th of December 2009
Delegations of the European Left present in Copenhagen
Download in other languages: FR