Blogging from Copenhagen

From Copenhagen, where he is for the second week of the climate change negotiations, World Vision CEO Tim Costello is posting his thoughts... Bookmark this page to read and watch his updates.

• Copenhagen - my final post

  22/12/2009 10:24:39 AM

  In cold, sleeplessness and utter frustration, Copenhagen's delegates witnessed a depressing conclusion of the glacial-speed negotiations on climate change.

  What started with such high hopes after Bali 2007, promising "an ambitious, fair and binding deal", ended in a train wreck.

  Of course, the political spin is that we narrowed the gap between the huge national-interest differences, and we have a way forward. But even Obama's facility for words could not hide the truth - "we have made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen...(but) this progress is not enough". Indeed. Neither ambitious, fair nor binding. It failed consummately ...

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• Wednesday 16 December 2009

  17/12/2009 11:52:10 AM

  Tenagne Lemma is the head of World Vision Ethiopia. Under her leadership, World Vision has recognised the impacts of climate change on the communities where World Vision works, and has begun to respond.

  The Afforestation/Reforestation project at Humbo is a partnership with the World Bank, and it has not only helped combat climate change through storing carbon on the once-bare hills in the south of the country, but the communities nearby now have access to more firewood, to honey, better quality water and improved food security, along with some funding that will flow to the local villages from the sale ...

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• Tuesday 15 December 2009

  16/12/2009 2:07:52 PM

  Why climate change matters to the lives of the poor.

  World Vision is at the Copenhagen climate change talks because this is no longer an environmental crisis but a deepening humanitarian crisis.

  Climate change is already affecting lives and livelihoods in the countries where we work, as described in graphic ways by so many in our national offices. It amplifies a number of humanitarian disasters that we are called on to respond to. Equally it amplifies key issues of our development work by intensifying malaria, diarrhoea, compromised water sources and sustainable futures for many of the communities where we ...

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• Monday 14 December 2009

  15/12/2009 7:30:41 PM

  A day of high drama where Africa walked out, suspended talks, and then later in the day returned after the Danish facilitators took on some of their concerns. A large crowd of civil society supporters cheered their confrontation with the West, and made it clear they stood in solidarity with Africa.

  Behind this high drama, side events in the program continued. I attended a faith-based seminar called "Renew the Face of the Earth" and was overjoyed to see a totally packed hall. The church bells ringing throughout Copenhagen and throughout the world yesterday transmitted the prayers offered in many ...

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• Sunday 13 December

  14/12/2009 10:42:40 AM

  Today was officially a day of rest for delegates at Copenhagen who took a break from the Bella Centre.

  Some of us took the opportunity to go to church and pray for a miracle. With talks deadlocked, and the planet's well-being swinging in the breeze, we needed to remind ourselves of a fundamental Jewish and Christian notion - "The Earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1).

  This most strikingly reminds us that we are stewards, not owners. And that all of God's children deserve a future: the poor, and those yet unborn in the first and third ...

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• Saturday 12 December

  12/12/2009 6:16:00 PM

  There is a tiny nation in the South Pacific called Tuvalu. The whole island is less than 4m above sea level. Its people’s future is literally dependent on the outcomes of the talks in Copenhagen this week - they face the prospect of having no homes, no country, no future.

  Little wonder their chief negotiator was in tears today as he appealed to international delegates to keep open the option of a strong legally-binding deal that might give Tuvalu and similar low-lying islands a chance at a future. Even at a time of considering national annihilation, the courtesies of civil ...

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• Friday 11 December

  11/12/2009 6:09:00 PM

  In search of a global ethic and political will, in freezing weather and the most dispiriting cavernous building under cold grey Copenhagen skies, this search by - 34,000 people with 3,500 press observing - is a most extraordinary moment in time for humanity. There is a mix of aspiration – hoping against hope – and a fair dose of despair. It makes for a volatile psychological mix.

  After two years since making a commitment in Bali, where has it got to? Essentially, the nations of the world have split into 3 key groups, making transparent what have been faint fault ...

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