Fifty years ago the great Science-Fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut famously wrote:
 
“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.”

 

Through a serendipitous piece of scheduling, a COP15 side event on human rights and climate change was held today, 10th December: International Human Rights Day. A panel of experts, including several from vulnerable indigenous communities in Africa, the Arctic and small islands, addressed the links between climate change and human rights. They made a compelling case for viewing climate change as a human rights issue.

Today is the first day of the international climate summit in Copenhagen. The opening formalities for one of the largest and most important gatherings in history are being completed and the representatives of 192 nations are now starting the business of bringing together the high politics and the legal details into an agreement. Whether there will be an agreement, what form it might take and whether it will be enough are open questions. But the stakes and the pressure for action could not be higher.

In one of the most dramatic weeks in Australian politics, the Australian emissions trading bill was defeated in the Senate this morning for the second time.  Australia will now have nothing to show at Copenhagen and it is more uncertain than ever which path Australia will now take to deal with climate change.  The concern is not so much that it was defeated (it really was a weak and flawed scheme that would have locked Australia into barely any reductions between now and 2020), but rather the reasons why it was defeated.