Studying COP15 Copenhagen

Over the next few weeks your editor is going back to school.

That will be in between digging up research for Australian Wealth Gameplan and Australian Small Cap Investigator.

Of course, it won’t be a proper school. There won’t be any teachers, there won’t be a classroom, and there definitely won’t be a blackboard.

In fact, your editor will be the only student.

So, what will we study?

Well, we’re aiming for a first class education in COP15.

Ah, where would the United Nations be without its acronyms? And where would it be without its mangled working groups, conventions and protocols?

That’s right, we’re going to cram down to study COP15 Copenhagen. That’s the much publicized meeting of nations that aims to solve the so-called problem of climate change.

To be honest, I’m not really looking forward to this self-education challenge.

Our first port of call was to the UNFCCC website.

That’s enough to put anyone off before they’ve even started. UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As the website homepage told us this morning, there are 28 days, 10 hours, 48 minutes and 27 seconds until the meeting at Copenhagen begins.

But I bet you didn’t know that last week delegates met in Barcelona for the Barcelona Climate Change Talks 2009.

According to the blurb on the website:

“The resumed ninth session of the the [sic] Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and resumed seventh session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) were held from 2-6 November in Barcelona. The Talks took place at the Barcelona Convention Centre, FIRA GRAN VIA, Carrer del Foc 47, 08038 Barcelona, Spain.”

Thanks for that. It’s all clear now isn’t it!

Before I go on, do you know that feeling you get when you drink something cold? You know, when your whole head goes into a spasm.

According to the Sayce kids, it’s called a ‘brain freeze.’

Well, we’ve had two brain freezes in the last twenty-four hours. The first was yesterday afternoon when Diggers & Drillers editor Dr. Alex Cowie bought the editorial team a Peter’s Frosty Fruits icy pole each – it’s a knock-off of a Callipo just for your reference.

The second brain freeze occurred 47 minutes later when we looked at the UNFCCC website and the schedule for the December 7th-18th meeting.

Because I bet you didn’t know that Copenhagen isn’t just about a bunch of world leaders getting together for canapés and beef stroganoff – or whatever the national dish of Denmark is. No, it’s much more than that.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference comprises:

• Fifteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15)
• Fifth Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP5) [Ed note: please tell me that isn't a meeting about a meeting!]
• Thirty-First Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA31)
• Thirty-First Session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI31)
• Tenth Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP10)
• Eighth Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA8)

Looking at the schedule, the only items on the agenda that appear to be confirmed are the two-hour lunch breaks.

You’d think that for such an important conference the full schedule would have been agreed on months ago.

Could it be that they’ve got no idea what to do? Surely not.

When you look at this stuff is it any wonder so many people are skeptical about climate change.

I mean seriously, climate change is so important that after a minimum of 100 meetings (we’ve just added up all those sessions above) the dopes at the United Nations and in government have achieved not one single identifiable outcome.

Not one. Name me one thing it’s done of any use.

The same thing is likely to happen in Copenhagen. Lots of chit-chat, plenty of photo opportunities, serious faces and chins rested on hands in contemplation, and lots of windmill impressions as leaders walk through gardens gesturing to each other and talking to each other in languages the other can’t understand.

Hasn’t anyone learnt that the longer that governments remain in control of climate change, nothing will be achieved.

As you may know, your editor is ignorant on the science of climate change, which as we can gather puts us in the majority. Even the greenies who support climate change policies have almost no real knowledge on the subject.

When they’re pushed to come up with the facts, the best they can offer is “something’s just got to be done, it’s obvious right?”

No, it’s not obvious actually. Call us cynical if you like, but we’re pretty certain there will be one of two outcomes at the Copenhagen Conference. Either they will resolve to have another meeting on the subject – that’s the most likely scenario given their past record.

Or, citizens of the world will be slugged with a massive tax bill that will achieve almost nothing from a climate change perspective except increase the amount of money governments will rip from their taxpayers.

Look, you may think we’re being flippant on this. And maybe we are, but the facts speak for themselves.

Whenever government is involved in anything, it lengthens the process of getting something done.

You only have to look at a micro level to see that. For example, how long does it take a local council to approve a building permit? Without council interference and corruption the work could start almost immediately.

How often do you hear State governments saying they are going to ‘fasttrack’ something? They only have to do that because it’s their impossible red tape that’s held things up in the first place.

And how many Senate enquiries or House of Representative enquiries, or working parties, or Royal Commissions does it take to change a lightbulb?

Anyway, I think you get the point.

If governments really were serious about doing something on climate change all they would need to do is get out of the way.

It’s quite simple. But it’ll never happen.

Politicians have the need to be in the way. Being in the way of things means they have power and control.

And as Lord Acton stated in the 19th century:

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than the fact that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”

Forget about Popes and Kings, prime ministers and presidents are just the same.

So, as we await the grand convention in Copenhagen we do so fully expectant that the “Great men” will either do things or not do things that are bad for you.

Perhaps we’re guilty of prejudicing the outcome. But that’s why we’ll try to fill our pea-sized brain with as much info as we can over the next few weeks.

By the time it all starts on 7th December we’ll come back to you with what we’ve made of it.

I bet you can’t wait!

Cheers.
Kris.

60-Second Market Round Up
by Shae Smith

The S&P/ASX200 ended the day up 1.26%, closing at 4,733.60. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both gained over 2% yesterday.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose slightly by 20 points, finishing at 10,246.97. This was the Dow’s highest close since October 3, 2008. Find out what else happened here.

In the UK the FTSE100 started strong but ended closing down by 4 points, to 5,230.55

The Nikkei rose again yesterday to 9,870.73 up by 0.63%

Gold has remained high, and a report from Barclays Capital said that “We expect the market to trade around USD$1,100 for a few more days before a run at USD$1,150 at the end of the month.” Read more about that story here.

The price of gold in Australian dollars is trading at $1,188.81, while in US Dollars it is trading at $1,105.88. And the price of silver in Aussie dollars is $18.64 and in US Dollars it is $17.34.

The Aussie dollar has continued to remain above 90 cents.

The Aussie dollar versus the US dollar is trading at USD$0.9305, and against the Japanese Yen JPY83.57.

Crude oil closed overnight at USD$79.70

For the biggest movers on the market yesterday click here…