In parallel to the Nations Summit, the United Nations Secretary General summoned the Climate Change Leadership Forum. The only Colombian representative of the private sector at the Forum was León Teicher, President of Cerrejón.

Under the motto “For green growth, let us protect the planet”, rulers of the world agreed to accelerate actions to guarantee that in the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference to be held at Copenhagen (Denmark) December 7 to 18, 2009, it is achieved the “closing of an agreement” for a more ambitious global plan that replaces the objectives set in the Kyoto Protocol, that finishes in 2012. All actions prior to the Conference seek to moderate the position of some developed countries (e.g., the United States) so that they accept greater commitments and the large emerging economies (i.e., China and India) subject themselves to restrictions.

In parallel to the Nations Summit, the United Nations Global Compact Office and the United Nations Secretary General summoned the Climate Change Leadership Forum. Such Forum gathered outstanding entrepreneurial leaders, heads of states, and inter-government agencies with the purpose of strengthening the commitment of the private sector with the objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation that will be proposed in Copenhagen. The only Colombian representative of the private sector at the Forum was León Teicher, President of Cerrejón.

Copenhagen Challenges

The United Nations Secretary General has established the following main objectives for the Copenhagen Conference:

• Measures to help adapt the poor and most vulnerable peoples to the inevitable effects of climate change.
• Adoption by developed countries of medium-term mitigation goals. Support to measures by developing countries targeted to decreasing the rhythm of growth of greenhouse effect gas issues.
• Foreseeable increase of the financial and technological support for the adaptation and mitigation measures in developing countries. International agreements and government structures to attend the needs of developing countries.

Summit Results

The New York Summit helped renew many purposes of the developed world before climate change. As the United Nations Secretary General annotated, this was the largest meeting of world leaders in history to talk about climate change. There outstand the new positions of the United States, China and Japan that are targeted to extending their commitments, beyond those proposed for 2020.

In his speech at the Summit, the US President Barack Obama asserted the following: “Yes, developed countries that have caused so much harm in our climate during the last century have the responsibility of being leaders. That includes the United States. And we will continue to do so, by investing in renewable energy, promoting greater efficiency and drastically reducing our emissions to reach the objectives we set for 2020 and our long-term objective for 2050”. President Obama asked the US Congress for an integral law on clean energy to reduce the issues from 2005 levels by 14% before 2020 and by 83% before 2050.

China has proposed three objectives: increasing the renewable and nuclear energy mix for electric power generation; an energy intensification objective; and restructuring and rebalancing its economy.

The European Union has proposed for 2020: reducing by 20% the greenhouse gas issues or by 30% if other developed countries agree to do the same; increasing by 20% the renewable-source energy consumption; and increasing by 20% energy savings.

At the Climate Change Leadership Forum, the UN Secretary General stated that “…entrepreneurs play a key role in building the political momentum for a fair and effective agreement on climate change in Copenhagen”. The final statement highlights that:

• Reaching a new agreement requires a new leadership level. The right decisions and actions are not easy and resistance in strong. Just as entrepreneurs are obliged to change the paradigm in the awakening of global crisis, governments have to focus on long-term sustainability.
• A failure of the agreement might generate commercial tensions and competitive distortions that threaten not only the bases of global economy but also the future advances in the economic and social sustainable development.
• The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of undertaking changes now. In the transition to a world with less emissions enormous opportunities are generated for value creation and for promotion of efficiency and innovation.
• Transformation is possible and viable. Companies have already made significant progress in identifying innovative solutions for adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The right incentives and certainty in regulation are required.
• Action before climate change is integral to human safety because it is linked to critical issues such as alimentation, water, health, migration, poverty, and energy, among others.

  Colombia at the Climate Change Summit
  The Government Posture
  
  President Álvaro Uribe Vélez attended the Summit and reiterated the country’s commitment to fight against the climate change. “Colombia is a country that, per each point of GDP, produces lower carbon emissions than the Latin American average, which is much lower than the world average”, he said. President Uribe added, “More than 51% of Colombian territory is forest, with large prevalence of the Amazon forest. We make every effort, and want to make every effort, to effectively contribute in this fight of humanity versus the climate change. A 10% of our country’s area is today in reserved areas”. Also, he described the Government efforts to protect forests from the drug threat and mentioned that Colombia is a country that “is advancing very much in biological fuels, in alternative energies... In Colombia, biofuels do not affect the forest and we have enough land so that they do not compete against food/aliment safety”.