Climate talks: All about rights to healthy environment

n the coming days, world leaders will assemble in Copenhagen, Denmark, to bestow their political boost for a global agreement to halt and reverse the devastating trend of climate variability.
It is still vivid in our memory, the last minute deal at Bali’s climate change conference was made possible, among others, by the persuasive call from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon as well as the political boost by other world leaders present at the meeting.
Other essential factors that have led to the adoption of the Bali deals was the direct intervention of the people through the world-wide broadcast of electronic and printed media reportings from the venue.
Bali Climate Conference of the COP 12 UNFCCC and MOP 3 of the Kyoto Protocol were the first meetings of such forums that incorporated everybody at the negotiating table on board to determine a consensual agreement.


As the Copenhagen Conference starts, the world’s people are once again presented with vague commitment by political leaders on their stance to follow up their consensus in Bali.
Strong political statements to cut carbon emissions by a significant percentage always have strings attached.
Concrete numbers mentioned in their statements might not always be followed through by their negotiators at the tables. An ambitious pledge to cut carbon emissions by up to 50 percent is always attached with yet to be revealed terms and conditions.
Singapore, for instance, has announced to undertake voluntary- and domestically-funded action to reduce its emission growth to 16 percent below “business as usual” levels by 2020.
The caveat of this commitment is if there is a legally binding global deal in Copenhagen that obliges all countries to cut emissions, and if other countries offer significant pledges.
This announcement follows other countries such as the US, Japan, China, Brazil, Indonesia and also the EU. Some countries, such as India, also made pledges to reduce from 20 percent to 25 percent in carbon intensity by 2020 from 2005 level.   
The many commitments that have been stated contained many variables and this will certainly come into play and have a significant impact in the negotiation.
Developed countries’ commitments are always followed by conditions that developing countries also are obliged to commit to, to help reduce emissions.
Major developing countries such as China and India have announced their commitment to reduce carbon intensity, which is different from reducing carbon emissions.
Other countries, such as Australia, have made committments but still face resistance so it is passed in Parliament.  
From the beginning, the climate conference enjoys much media coverage and it seems that negotiators like the drama involved.
They will never end a negotiation on time, because last minute deals have to be worked out. It is true that the negotiation has always been highly politicized and many critical factors are involved and must be taken into account.
Political pressure, particularly at the domestic level, always comes into play at each climate negotiation, and this also dictates the final position of the negotiating parties.
The arguments presented at the negotiation, in fact, have their roots at the Stockholm Conference on
the Human Environment in 1972, and were later re-emphasized at the Conference on Environment
and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Those two global conferences have set the tone for subsequent global negotiations on the issue of environment and sustainable development.
They have also brought a new agenda in the global deliberation that links the livelihood of humans with environment protection. Since then, global awareness on the need to claim a healthy environment as a fundamental right of every individual and community evolved.
The Stockholm and Rio conferences have developed essential principles concerning global environment deliberation. The rights to development and precautionary approaches are always utilized by developing and developed negotiators to debate and develop many global environmental agreements.
The principle as stipulated in both the Stockholm and Rio De Janeiro declarations, stated that, “States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction”.
The developing countries, in this respect, require an assurance that any commitment they make will not sacrifice their rights to development.
This has been the core issue in the global environment negotiation, including at the climate change conference, with many political, economical, technical and scientific variability.
A breakthrough on this issue requires significant political commitments if not sacrifices for the world’s politicians.
In many complicated climate negotiation proceedings, one aspect from Stockholm and Rio de Janeiro that was left up in the air by negotiators was the fundamental right for people to live well in an environment that permits a life of dignity and well being for present and future generations.
The role of civil society, NGOs and the media is critical in asserting pressures concerning the above-mentioned rights to politicians and negotiators, as we might have seen in the Bali Climate Conference.
In front of a direct broadcast of electronic media to every household, those negotiators bowed to people pressure that led to a global consensus.
People pressure might not be present directly at the venue. However, it will certainly be accountable as the culprit that compromises the safety of fellow mankind if it keeps blocking the consensus.
On this note, we believe that the Copenhagen Conference will, as always, be a complex and intricate negotiation to be navigated.
The presence of world leaders in big numbers and the billions of eyes watching through the television screen should enable the conference to end with clear deals to move forward.
People around the world have to make it known that they are to claim the indispensable and fundamental right to a better livelihood and to live a life of dignity for present and future generations.
In Indonesia, the vibrant news media has to once again be directly involved. It will set the tone and network with their compatriots for the success of the global undertaking for the sake of everone, including journalists and their families.
This also reflects the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio declaration, which has been accommodated in various national, regional and global instruments on the rights to be granted access to information and participation to determine policies that will impact significantly on the livelihood of present and future generations.


Ngurah Sanjaya, The writer is an Indonesian diplomat who participated in the previous climate negotiations and served as an advisor to the president of the COP 12 of UNFCCC and MOP 3 of Kyoto Protocol in Bali.
The opinions expressed are his own.

Opini The Jakarta Post, 9 Desember 2009