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| WWViews | 26. August 2009 | www.wwviews.org |
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Climate policy – a job for the few? Newsletter No 2, August 2009. Second out of six. In this newsletter we focus on the relationship between politicians and citizens in the debate on climate policy: Should citizens be involved in decisions on future climate policy? And how can we benefit from citizens’ point of views? These are some of the questions that among others ms. Connie Hedegaard, host of COP15, project managers from India and South Africa, and an American citizen, who will be participating in a WWViews meeting, try to answer. Best wishes to all of you and enjoy your reading! Circulate the Newsletter Should you not find this information relevant, please forward it to the relevant persons in your organisation or other people, who might find it interesting. Relevant links You can find a complete list of the partner organisations in the WWViews Alliance here. If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe for this newsletter, please
send a notice to: manager@wwviews.org Content:
WWViews on Global Warming and Deliberative democracy By Lars Klüver, Director of The Danish Board of Technology Deliberative democracy is and will always be a matter of discussion. According to democratic traditions in some countries, citizens taking part in the daily political process are looked upon as pure disturbance. In other democracies citizens are encouraged to be present, to feed politicians, to vitalise the political debate and are regarded as a necessary contribution to society and democracy. World Wide Views On Global Warming is a global example of the latter. This newsletter carries an article from the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy stressing that the citizen panel meetings to be held on September 26 are of great importance to the climate debate in order to present citizens’ deliberated views on future climate policy to their politicians. In this newsletter, we also bring interviews with an American citizen, project managers from India and South Africa, and a member of the Danish Parliament - all of them are related to the project, and we asked them about their views on citizen consultation and future climate policy. Furthermore, partners in 39 countries are now fully funded and able to go through with their meetings, which means that the project is more wide spreading than we could ever have hoped for. In short: we are excited! A Shared Challenge - A Shared Responsibility By Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, host of COP15, and Ambassador for World Wide Views on Global Warming. It is no secret that the road towards an agreement in Copenhagen is paved with challenges and difficult negotiations. In this context, events that create debate and engage citizens throughout the whole world play a very important role. Besides from focusing on climate issues this practice helps getting the political process moving, and it can help creating the kind of pressure needed in order to reach a good and ambitious agreement in Copenhagen. But not only should we make world citizens aware of the problem – we need to know their views as well. What are their expectations to a global climate deal? What do they think of the individual elements of the agreement? Even though politicians negotiate the agreement, by the end of the day we all have to make sure, through our behaviour, that we reach these goals. “World Wide Views” creates a unique possibility to involve citizens from all corners of the world in the process up to the climate conference In Copenhagen this December. The project ensures that we politicians get a reality check on how world citizens think the agreement should be put together and on their expectations to the level of ambition. This will hopefully get the negotiations moving; because there is no doubt that we still have many difficulties to overcome. Recently I saw a calculation in Jyllands Posten (one of the larger Danish morning papers, ed.), which showed that 8 out of 10 Danes are willing to change their behaviour for the sake of climate change – and 2 out of 3 have already actively changed behaviour by saving electricity. Over half of all Danes are in fact willing to drive their cars less in order to counter global warming. This is a clear sign that the population takes this problem seriously, which is the first condition of success in changing our society and economy in order to make sure that sustainability and growth go hand in hand. It is important to remember that a sustainable society does not necessarily mean a grey and boring society with prohibitions and raised fingers – not if we start the change even now. I hope and believe that “World Wide Views on Global Warming” will send a signal difficult to ignore during the climate negotiations and that the project can ensure we will reach a good and ambitious agreement this December. In a world where we in 2050 will be 9 billion people, sustainable growth is simply the only solution. Only this way will we be able to hand over a society to our descendants that is as good – and hopefully better – as the one we took over ourselves. We must not be remembered as the generation that partied carelessly and left the bill as well as the hangover to future generations. On the contrary, we must take responsibility and show the way forward toward a more sustainable society. A View on the Actors of World Wide Views By Zara Wölck, communication assistant at the Danish Board of Technology All continents are represented when citizens from all over the world are discussing climate policy on September 26. And even though information material and method are the same, the traditions for citizen consultation and climate debate are very different in each of the countries participating in the project. We asked an American citizen, and Indian and a South African project manager, and a Danish politician about their views on citizen consultation and future climate policy. Why is it important to discuss climate change with ordinary citizen?
In what way will the COP15 negotiators be able to use the results from these debates among citizens?
Are citizen consultations as WWViews a way to make decisions on climate policy in the future?
Are your country’s population, industry, and politicians ready for the global environmental responsibility a new climate deal might require?
Since the last WWViews newsletter many issues within the WWViews project have been settled. The WWViews team at The Danish Board of Technology are back after summer holidays, and we are realising that World Wide Views on Global Warming is no longer just a vision, but a fact. It is no longer a project that might succeed in the future if we find the necessary funds and partners; World Wide Views is a reality, and when the WWViews meetings begin on September 26, it will be with the participation of 44 hard working partner organisations in 39 countries. It has been a long way, and everyone has been working really hard to raise funds in order to make the global representation as wide as possible. 39 countries in all parts of the world is way more than we could have hoped for. Unfortunately we have had to say goodbye to some of our partners. Some have not been able to find the necessary funding and some have not been able to carry out a big and complicated project as the WWViews. Our activities within the WWViews team are widespread, and much time is used on partner correspondence, logistics, and solving all the technical challenges in connection with the citizen consultations on September 26. We have just finished the information material that will equip the participating citizens with basic information and knowledge about climate change and the COP15 negotiations to make sure they can discuss and vote on an informed basis. In addition to this the written material, which they will receive before the meetings, we are at the moment putting our final touch to four information videos, which will be presented between the different debating sessions at the WWViews meeting. They show and tell about the same issues as debated in the written material. Furthermore, all partner organisations are working on video portraits of citizens from their own countries. These will provide media and other interested parties with a wide range of different citizen perspectives on global warming, COP15 and WWViews. More information on these videos and how to get them follows below. Finally, we are in the process of assembling three expert panels. As results will be coming in from the 44 WWViews meetings on the September 26, these panels of internationally renowned high profile experts will comment on the results in a WWViews blog, and during the day they will “meet” in a live videoconference, where they together will comment and discuss the results. Blog as well as videoconference will be accessible for the media and everyone else interested. These are some of the activities we will spend our time on throughout the rest of August and September as well. Follow us on Facebook, World Climate Community, and Surfoffice On our Facebook page and in our World Climate Community group you can follow the different steps of the project, get information on how to contribute to the success of our citizen consultations, and not least you can take part in debates on democracy, citizen consultations, and climate change. Surfoffice is our new platform for file sharing. Here you can find the video portraits mentioned above from the countries in WWViews, photos, and pod casts – all free to use. It is not complete at the moment, but we will currently upload more of everything! We look forward to seeing you online! Director of The Danish Board of Technology: Mr. Lars Klüver,
lk@tekno.dk Connie Hedegaard Prof. Mohan Munasinghe Bill McKibben WWViews in 60 Words! The next newsletter will be issued September 25. |
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WWViews, c/o Teknologirådet
The Danish Board of Technology Phone: +45 33320503 Mail: info@wwviews.org |
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Lars
Klüver, Director of The Danish Board of Technology: