Copenhagen: Grand Rhetoric

Yesterdays opening of COP15 was filled with the expected grand rhetoric and tough talking by hosts Denmark. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish climate minister and conference president, spoke of the positive effects of pressure on nations to come up with emissions reduction targets before the conference, while U.N. climate negotiator Evo De Boer focused on the need for developed countries come up with the cash to ensure emission reductions in the developed world.

Several of our featured news sites focused on expectations that the E.U. will boost its targets to 30% reductions by, with rumours that the EU is ready to announce multi billion Euro funding for developing nations as a sign of good faith in negotiations. The head of the G77 developing nation bloc (130 nations) criticised even the upwardly revised European targets, saying “I do believe that they [the European countries] should move away from considering their national economic interests at the cost of humanity.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Authority has also come to the party, announcing that it considers CO2 and five other greenhouse gases a threat to public health. This is significant as a warning shot across the bows of the Republican Party, as it provides the Obama administration with the power to regulate to reduce emissions if the current bill before Congress doesnt pass. As Senator John Kerry told A.P., The message to Congress is crystal clear: get moving.

The Guardian reported that Mohammed Al Sabban was repeating his party trick of using the University of East Anglia email affair to cast doubt on climate science. outlets reported an editorial, organised and written by staff from The Guardian, which was published in 56 major papers worldwide. Domestically, The OZ also expanded on Malcolm Turnbulls blistering Twitter attack on Tony Abbot and his climate change policy and beliefs

And so, to the voices who was talking the loudest? In terms of individuals, U.N negotiating head Yvo de Boer was the leading quoted source, followed by IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and compatriot Connie Hedegaard were also quoted frequently by a number of our web sources.

Interestingly, the only sceptics quoted were Thomas Donahue (head of the sceptic endorsing U.S. Chamber of Commerce) and Saudi chief negotiator Mohammed al Sabban, with Pachauri and his IPCC deputy Jean-Pascal van Ypersele were going hard to negate any impact Climategate may have on the talks.

Van Ypersele speculated that Russian hackers may have been paid to steal communications between climate researchers in a well-funded attempt to destroy public confidence in the science of man-made climate change.

Well be looking at a number of ways of analysing those voices quoted over the next few weeks, and how it varies between news outlets. In most outlets, by far the dominant sources of quotes were politicians or other government actors (including those from non-scientific U.N. bodies). The Australian was, by a long shot, the leader in using scientific or expert individuals, with 7 experts quoted vs. 13 government sources, with The Oz also quoting two environmentalists and no sceptics or business representatives. In contrast, the COP15 site quoted 10 government sources and no others.

Worthy of observation is the skew towards voices from the developed world. The graph below demonstrates this. This is expected given the origin of four of our sites are in the developed world, although Al-Jazeera English also demonstrated a similar trend, with an 8-3 count in favour of developing nation voices. Al-Jazeera has, however, been running a climate features site called Climate SOS in the lead up to COP15 (including video which Im not analysing) which has largely featured the developing world.

Ill be keeping an eye on this division, and am expecting a small rise in developing nation sources if the talks start to go pear shaped, and also as the opening commentaries from many of the dominant developed country actors are replaced with details of the negotiations progress.