Representatives of the signatory countries of the Kyoto Protocol have been meeting since yesterday in Montreal for the eleventh World Climate Summit (COP 11), the first to be held since the international treaty entered into force last February. Although its implementation was a step forward after the stalemate that had occurred after the refusal of the United States to ratify the Kyoto protocol, in the course of these months only the scenario in which the Summit is held has changed: from the southern summer of Buenos Aires to the cold winter of Montreal (Canada).

With freezing temperatures, but tempers heated by the fall of the Canadian government yesterday after a motion of censure presented by the opposition, the still Minister of the Environment of the host country, Stèphane Dion, said at the opening of the Summit that climate change “is the worst threat facing the world from an environmental perspective, that is endangering our relationship with the planet.” In order to strengthen the fight against climate change, one of the key issues to be addressed is how the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will continue after 2013, once the first period of compliance with the Kyoto Protocol ends and when countries with assigned emission quotas should have managed to reduce their emissions by 5 percent above levels of 1990.

The prospects for reaching this goal are not good, but even so, the delegation of the European Union – which will again try to act as a hinge to soften the positions of the United States and the OPEC countries – considers that it is necessary to start talking now about the terms in which this future regime will be articulated. To this end, the European delegation will endeavour to include the United States and Australia in the next negotiation process, but also believes that the time has come to involve developing countries in the process of strong industrialisation, such as China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, in future commitments. In any case, it seems that everything will remain in talks, as both the United Nations Secretariat for Climate Change and the British Environment Minister, Margaret Becker, currently spokesperson for the EU’s positions, have already warned that this meeting will not result in a mandate in this regard.

What is clear on the agenda of COP 11 is the need to establish a program for adaptation to climate change, since its effects are already being felt in much of the planet. However, the EU insists that it must be complementary to mitigation, i.e. reducing CO2 emissions.

Coinciding with the start of the Conference in Montreal, Greenpeace activists have installed a 4-metre-high hourglass in front of the meeting venue to remind the attending delegations of the lack of time to act against the greatest threat to the environment of our days. Other organisations, such as WWF/Adena, are urging countries to start talks to achieve a new agreement to reduce CO2 emissions after 2012.

According to environmentalists, renewable and ‘clean’ energies are the key to avoiding CO2 emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which are the cause of climate change. The Renewables 2050 report, published last week, concluded that in Spain alone, clean energies could produce 56 times more electricity than the demand forecast for Spain in 2050.