Bolivia: Change the capitalist system

President of Bolivia Evo Morales: If there is no agreement at this level, why not tell the people?
Rie Jerichow - 18/12/2009 - Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia, took the floor to express annoyance at the way a climate deal is being thrashed out by a small group of world leaders at the last minute.

"If there is no agreement at this level, why not tell it to the people?" he said from the podium at the plenary meeting in Copenhagen.

"The time has come for everyone. We can't spend days and days here. We have other important issues to deal with," he said, calling for further consultations with the people.

"Who is responsible?" he asked. And concluded "The responsibility lies on the capitalist system - we have to change the capitalist system."

+ More

Chávez felt excludedVenezuela’s

President Hugo Chávez criticized the UN climate conference for “a real lack of transparency”, speaking on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.
Marianne Bom - 18/12/2009 - President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took the floor at the plenary, Friday afternoon, and accused US President Barack Obama of behaving like an emperor “who comes in during the middle of the night … and cooks up a document that we will not accept, we will never accept”.

Chávez underlined that “all countries are equal”. He stressed that he would not accept that some countries prepared a text for a climate deal and just “slipped [it] under the door” to be signed by the others. He said he had heard of the existence of such a text, but “we don’t know the paper” and then continued by accusing the conference of “a real lack of transparency”.

Hugo Chávez suggested he would leave the UN climate conference in protest of the way it developed.

“We can’t wait any longer, we are leaving … We are leaving, knowing that it wasn’t possible getting a deal,” he said.

The Venezuelan President spoke on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, an alliance of among others Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

+ More

South Korea: Copenhagen marks a new beginning

President Lee Myung-bak introduces a new institute to assist governments worldwide in formulating national action plans for clean energy. - Morten Andersen - 18/12/2009 - South Korea will attract ”the best minds from all around the world” to work at a new Global Green Growth Institute. The institute's prime task will be to assist governments in drawing up national plans for green growth.

”We only have a few hours left till the Copenhagen conference closes. However, this is not an end but rather a new beginning. We have not reached agreement on all issues, but this should not be an excuse for no action. There is no alternative to our planet, this is all we have,” President Lee Myung-bak said as he adressed the conference's plenary Friday afternoon.

The president expressed his hope that the idea of green growth will be a ”beacon” for other nations and make a ”dramatic” change to their paths of economic development.

South Korea recently announced that it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by four percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels. This makes the country the first emerging economy to take on an absolute reduction commitment and not only a relative commitment compared to a business-as-usual scenario.

Da UNFCCC