After Copenhagen, before Mexico and during crisis

Miriam Kennet comes to Schumacher to work with participants on what we do next

Miriam Kennet, Green Economics Institute: The agreement reached at the Copenhagen Summit was neither legal binding nor target driven. However it is an international accord and an agreement to act. It is in some respects a letter of intent and as such must be used by each of us individually, and how we can responsibly develop safeguards for the Mexico negotiations so that we support scientists, experts and negotiators in their vital discussions.


Miriam Kennet was the leader of the delegation from the Green Economics Institute at the Copenhagen Summit, which included the author of the Kyoto Protocol carbon market, Kyoto 1 and the author of Kyoto 2. The small island states aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, from pre- industrial times, was managed by negotiators in her delegation.

She witnessed the power struggles and conflicts of interest that led to a near collapse of the summit. In particular these included the conflict in time management between the needs for Heads of State to be able to confirm climate change as an issue for their countries, and to make a landmark speech about it, and also for the negotiators to have enough time to negotiate agreements on documents and texts.

In the spotlight with all the world’s media focused several new issues arose. A “new world order emerged” in several respects.

New power blocks emerged in relation to the degree of threat each nation faces with regard to climate change economics : in particular the least developed nations and the small island states who are perhaps most affected and least able to act to control their own destiny and survival.

Following the Copenhagen Summit Miriam Kennet and colleagues at the Green Economics Institute published a series of immediate reflections on the summit as part of declaring the need for a constructive way forward. They said: Institutional responsibility, community level, country level and society level – Preventing further climate is something on which all we need to act together. Green Economics Solutions are about sharing the earth’s resources and sharing our joint responsibility for humanity.


With Civil Society now enjoying “ a moral right “ to participate, but no boundaries had been put around the number of participants leading to total chaos and serious and in some cases dangerous breakdowns in security and safety. The lack of methodology for that moral right of civil society to be exercised. These are all issues that in a new climate of expectation and hope for climate agreement such conferences attract far more people than before. The management of these events so that they do provide the level of quality of agreement and much needed outcomes is a challenge with which we are working with the UN to solve.

Participants on our course After Copenhagen will be invited to discuss some of these issues and to input to solutions to some of these problems to help ensure that their views and wishes and knowledge is directly taken up at Mexico. They will be invited to discuss what these power relations mean in terms of looking constructively at expectations and targets for the Mexico summit and how the lessons learnt from the difficult management issues of the Copenhagen summit will be invaluable for the future of climate change negotiations and the reform of institutions. Moving forward from the Copenhagen Accord, participants on the course will have a chance to contribute towards documents and briefings for the Green Economics Institute’s international negotiators attending the Mexico Summit with Miriam and to explore the potential for their own work in this area.

Return to Short Course section, After Copenhagen: Opportunities and challenge

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