Photo: Batzul Gerelsaikhan
Batzul Gerelsaikhan is from Mongolia. She is studying for a bachelors degree in Economics at the University of Copenhagen, and has taken part in a number of events connected to the COP 15 climate conference
I came here in Copenhagen all the way from Mongolia in January for my Bachelor's degree in Economics at the University of Copenhagen, so I had the privilege to volunteer and attend as many conferences and events as I can handle until this moment – IARU Int. Scientific Congress on Climate Change in March, Local Government Climate Change Leadership Summit in June, and Bright Green Expo during the COP15 this December to name the biggest.
Hence, I was looking forward to COP15 for a long time with a hope of seeing a 'sharing' mutual understanding between the developed and the developing countries, but to much disappointment, the gap between the two remained the same; and I have seen and heard only the voices of the developed countries, where they explained what they will do in the future and which new technology they will be using for themselves.
No comments on how the developing countries are suffering from the developed countries’ 'mistakes' were said. Only China, India and Brazil were mentioned a bit, but surely they are not the only developing countries out there.
There are many developing countries like theTulun islands, for instance, where the people don’t even use cars, not even electricity, are facing the sea level rise, and they are estimated to be drowned down in 10 years, leaving its people to become refugees along with many other climate refugees in the world.
These developing countries are indeed the most innocent victims of climate change, and people are giving little (almost no) attention to these vulnerable countries.
So far, I have heard three Nobel Peace Prize winners, many royalty, PMs, MPs, ministers, governors and researchers speak of the dangers of climate change in the future; but why don’t they understand that the developing countries will be repeating the exact same mistakes they have taken, to become like them?
All this new technology and renewable energies are economically very expensive, for some countries too expensive, or more like impossible to get; hence we’ll keep using the old technologies with not much choice, unless the developed countries are willing to give a hand and help us jump the polluting steps of becoming a developed nation (and no, we are not talking about “$10 billion to Africa” kind of aid, we know you spend trillions for your defense, when you’re not at a war!).
So the question is: how willing are the developed countries to help tackling this climate issue they’ve created and how willing are they to help others who are suffering from their mistakes?
I’m surprised to see that people find it so shocking that G77 and China leave the conference in midst of it; that protestors stand outside Bella Center in this freezing weather,and that Obama chooses to get his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo rather than coming to Copenhagen immediately to help solve this issue.
Those people want an immediate action and not mere talk – since time is running out. Also, it is becoming clear that COP15 is most likely to fail like Kyoto protocol, because like mentioned above there are no mutual bindings between the developed and developing countries.
Whether it’s 2 degrees, or 1.5 degrees, it is important that countries should have a differentiated responsibility for each of their actions, since it is not fair for the developing countries to pay a tax for the C02 they haven’t created.
Hopenhageners like me, however, are still hoping that politicians can break the wall between the rich and poor like Germans did to its Berlin Wall. After all, we are all the same and everybody will be affected more or less on this one planet by this climate change.
It is only matter of time when we will all finally realize that sharing is the best solution now. If we fail to do so, it will be even more expensive and more impossible to reach any goal we’ll set in the future.
Batzul Gerelsaikhan, Mongolia
Dec 16, 2009
It's great to read your letter.
I absolutely agree with you.
You represented developing countries
Thanks for the wonderful approving comments, but i just read this exciting side-angled article, which tells a complete different story than mine; and you should all check it out! After all this is a debate, right?
There's always a two-sides of a story, and it's your choice to decide which seems right. Real talks are always closed and politics can be really confusing, hiding the truth...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-cha...
But again, even if it's true, China would be considered way more developed than other poor developing nation, so the real poor countries' voices are still unheard...and this is where we can see the real nature of the International Relations, where the super powers decide all.
We've participated together with Ms. Gerelsaikhan in the Energy Crossroads "Changing the Game" game back in November when i was studying in the University of Copenhagen on a Medical faculty. And had an impression that politicians are simply afraid of speaking about developing countries, about problems they are facing, meaning problems than 2/3 of global population are facing nowadays. I do clearly remember the uneasiness that was caused by Ms. Gerelsaikhan's question upon situation around developing countries, upon the gap between two worlds. Not mentioning that this question was left unanswered.
I am not following the COP 15 but I am hoping the leaders make clear resolutions with immediate impact and demonstrate it globally. Its a real issue and its knocking our doors. Who is to blame when Ulaanbaatar runs out of fresh water and our forests are gone?
I saw documentaries about those sinking islands you just mentioned. Most developed nations live in an artificial environment. If it gets hot or cold outside they just adjust the room temperature... They never feel the impact the same way those island people do.
Ms.Batzul speaks the truth about how developing nations in the future will end up the same as modern developed countries. It is necessary for developing nations to alter their development to a more eco-friendly manner. It might be just possible with the aid of developed countries with their superior advancement in technology. From seeing the latest news, it seems it ain't likely to happen in the near future.
Peace
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