VZCZCXYZ0006
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKT #1122 3441114
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101114Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1138
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3377
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 7572
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 2913
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 5610

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001122 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/INS, PM/CBM, PM/PRO 
 
STATE FOR SCA/PPD, PA/RRU 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: KMDR KPAO PGOV OPRC NP
SUBJ: MEDIA REACTION: HOPE IN HOPENHAGEN 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: Nepal's popular English daily Republica 
(estimated circulation of 15,000) on Thursday, 
December 10, 2009 published an editorial on the 
hopes and opportunities the climate change 
conference in Copenhagen is providing the world. The 
editorial urges the world leaders to seize the 
moment and strive for 'tangible progress in 
Copenhagen or else the mammoth participation at the 
conference will turn out to have been a self- 
indulgence.' 
 
COMPLETE TEXT: 
 
¶2. "Copenhagen, where the climate change conference 
kicked off on December 7, has re-branded itself as 
Hopenhagen for two-weeks to imbue hope that the 
world has woken up to the threat of climate change. 
Danes take the issue of climate change seriously, as 
is demonstrated by their lofty aim to make 
Copenhagen the world's first carbon-free capital by 
¶2025. Hats off to them. But seriousness on the part 
of the host alone is not going to change things 
unless other countries--both rich and poor-- join 
hands. As things now stand, there are hopes that the 
Copenhagen conference is going to be a turning 
point--from where human beings will start to reverse 
their ravaging of mother earth. But there are also 
fears that we will, once again, falter and miss the 
opportunity." 
 
¶3.  "World leaders--again from both the developed 
and developing countries-- must show maturity and 
seize this opportunity. The US announcement that 
President Barack Obama will join the conference 
towards its end and recent pledges on numerical 
targets for emissions reduction by the world's big 
greenhouse gas emitters -- US, China, India and 
Brazil-- have given a boost to the climate 
conference. But reaching a deal that everybody will 
own remains uncertain still. If a legally binding 
emissions target is not possible, countries should 
agree to voluntarily set targets and these can be 
converted later on into legally binding ones. The 
developed countries must also show magnanimity in 
offering aid to the poorer ones so that the latter 
can also contribute their part in emissions 
reductions. In any case, there must be tangible 
progress in Copenhagen or else the mammoth 
participation at the conference will turn out to 
have been a self-indulgence." 
 
¶4.  "Since the UN's climate conference in Stockholm 
in 1972 or the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 
1992 and the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997, we 
haven't made much progress in saving the planet. 
Since 1992, global carbon-dioxide emissions have 
risen by a third. The Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change (IPCC), a body constituted by the UN 
to establish a scientific consensus on the effects 
of climate change, has said world temperatures could 
increase in the range of 1.1-6.4'C by the end of 
this century. If we are lucky, temperatures may rise 
by just less than two percent, but if they increase 
by over six percent we, as a species, are doomed. We 
must therefore recognize the long-term threat of 
climate change and not take comfort in the fact that 
there is no immediate danger attached to it." 
 
BERRY