Copenhagen climate conference: The key players

A huge cast of characters will debate, cajole and eventually decide a deal. John Harris selects his climate heroes – plus one villain

John Harris
The Guardian, Monday 30 November 2009
Mohammed al-Sabban Senior economic adviser, Saudi Arabia
Moustachioed high-up in his country's ministry of petroleum and mineral resources, leader of the Saudi Arabian negotiating team, and a reasonable bet for Copenhagen's most likely villain. "The awkward squad will always include Saudi Arabia," says one Copenhagen insider, though disappointment with America may lead to the US taking most flak. Al-Sabban is seen as a vocal obstructer of any convincing agreement. If a deal goes through, he wants serious compensation from the industrialised west for losses that may run into billions — though his detractors point to Saudi Arabia's vast wealth and wonder why he shouts so loud.
Bernaditas de Castro Muller Lead negotiator, G77 countries plus China
Retired Filipino diplomat, and a genuine diplomatic celebrity, known to her friends as "Ditas" and enemies as "dragon woman". Lives in Geneva with her Swiss economist husband, and heads up a misleadingly named umbrella group of 130 developing countries, more than likely to splinter as the talks progress. Her essential position: that most rich countries have failed to live up to their Kyoto pledges, so trying to rope poorer nations into a legally binding new agreement and thereby threaten their growth is an act of massive post-imperial arrogance. In Copenhagen's first few days — when negotiators will run the show, prior to the mass arrival of ministers from the 12th onwards — she'll be pushing particularly hard for big transfers of cash from rich to poor countries.
Kevin Conrad Special envoy on climate change, Papua New Guinea
The 41-year-old Harvard graduate is probably the most high-profile representative of the 42-strong Alliance of Small Island States. Famous in climate change circles since his irate challenge to the US at the 2007 climate talks in Bali ("If for some reason you're not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us; please, get out of the way"), after which, the key American representative suddenly promised to "go forward and join the consensus" — you can watch what happened on YouTube. Has lately expressed worry about pre-Copenhagen talks "going backwards", and big countries trying to wriggle free of a comprehensive deal. Sure to be one of Copenhagen's loudest voices.
Yvo de Boer Executive secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The 55-year-old Dutchman is based at the UNFCCC's HQ in Bonn. Head of the body responsible for international negotiations on climate change, and self-styled "conscience of the process". At the end of the 2007 summit in Bali that decisively began the journey to Copenhagen, he had a famously emotional moment when he was challenged by Chinese delegate on procedure; "he wasn't just wiping his eyes, he was in floods of tears," said one observer. At an August negotiating round in the city he now calls home, he bemoaned the increasingly baffling negotiating text, claiming that "we seem to be afloat on a sea of brackets" — but tries his best to stay optimistic. Wants a full, legally binding treaty agreed by mid-2010.
Connie Hedegaard Climate and energy minister, Denmark
The 49 year-old will chair the Copenhagen conference. Prior to holding high office, was an anchor on the prophetically titled Danish news show Deadline. Of late, along with the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, has attracted some hostility thanks to her country's role in delaying a legally binding treaty, though at a pre-summit intergovernmental meeting this month she said Denmark would push for a hard cut-off point for post-summit negotiations.
Ed Miliband UK minister for energy and climate change
Younger of the two high-ranking Milibands; will turn 40 six days after the Copenhagen talks end. Bolstered by the fact that the UK has pledged specific figures for both emissions cuts and financing for climate action in poorer countries, and believes both are essential if the summit is to be any kind of success. "If we don't get any numbers at Copenhagen, it's a failure," he recently said. Is also driving for a full treaty to arrive within months of the summit's formal end: "Not at the end of next year. I want it as soon as possible."
Jonathan Pershing Chief US negotiator
Aka the USA's deputy special envoy for climate change. Until he got his latest job, headed up a Washington environmental thinktank. Has a bit of the yin-and-yang about him: according to one player in the pre-Copenhagen talks, he's "an immensely able technocrat, but also passionate". More extrovert than his senior US counterpart Todd Stern (see below), but for all his belief in the US embracing the imperatives of climate change, his return to the state department — where he spent nearly 10 years in the 1990s — has reportedly brought him back in line with the American exceptionalism embodied by Barack Obama's blink-and-you'll-miss-it visit to the talks on December 9.
Jairam Ramesh Minister for environment and forests, India
Stoic and debonair 55-year-old who personifies the divide between the big industrialised powers and plenty of developing nations, chiefly on the question of whether countries such as his should submit to legally binding restrictions on their output of greenhouse gases, on which he says India is "prepared to be alone". "The legally binding nature of commitments should apply to developed countries," he told The Guardian last month. Has recently sounded pessimistic about the prospects for a full post-Copenhagen treaty: "You should not have too many expectations."
Dilma Rousseff Chief minister of the presidential household and cabinet, Brazil
Compared to fellow fast-rising countries India and China, Brazil has injected the pre-Copenhagen process with much more momentum, pledging a cut in greenhouse gas emissions — relative to projected "business as usual" levels — of between 36% and 39% by 2020. Another token of their ecological bona fides has been the involvement in pre-summit talks of this woman, President Lula da Silva's preferred successor – who's likely to be a very visible face at the summit proper. She's 62, half-Bulgarian, twice married and separated, and her history includes militant opposition to the military juntas that governed her country until the mid 1980s; though she has denied it, she's long been associated with a $2.4bn robbery in 1969, from a safe belonging to the corrupt governor of São Paolo.
Buyelwa Sonjica Minister of water and environmental affairs, South Africa
Fifty-year-old minister with a CV that takes in a spell as a student nurse, an off-career as teacher, and a spell in the mid-1970s as a London-based student activist. Crucial to the Copenhagen summit because of her country's leadership role within Africa, and recently heard voicing doubts about whether the meeting can deliver: "It appears that a deal is far from being on the table." Pushing hard for a 40% cut in developed countries' carbon emissions by 2020, and serious financial help for poorer nations. Negotiation veterans says she's somewhat held back by President Jacob Zuma's uncertain position on climate change issues (and South Africa's dependence on coal).
Todd Stern US special envoy for climate change
Barack Obama's 58-year-old point-man in the parts of the pre-Copenhagen negotiations driven by politicians rather than their negotiating underlings. A Chicago native and lawyer by trade, who worked in Bill Clinton's White House between 1993 and 1998, and was the US key negotiator at Kyoto — before being brought back into the front-line by Hillary Clinton, under the auspices of the US state department. At the news conference announcing his appointment, said that "the time for denial, delay and dispute is over," though the USA's moves since have not quite followed through on his rhetoric: their provisional pledge of 17% cut in 2005 levels of carbon emissions by 2020 is no great leap forward, and their position on funding commitments for the developing world remains uncertain.
Jan Thompson Chief negotiator, UK
Career civil servant with 19 years' Whitehall experience, who has been on loan to Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change from the Foreign Office for two years. Looks a little groovier than her responsibilities might suggest: partial to uniformly black, goth-ish attire, and red patent boots. Doesn't say much to the press, but is — obviously — as staunch as Ed Miliband about the need for convincing specifics in whatever arises from Copenhagen: "The deal needs to be done, and the deal has to involve numbers and hard commitments."
Penny Wong Minister for climate change and water, Australia
A 41-year-old member of her country's Labour government, she's described as "relentless", as well as "calm, groomed and virtually unflappable". Australia's fast-changing climate backs up the predictions of the science, and relative to the Bush-esque stance it took under right wing premier John Howard, the country's position has massively shifted — though partly thanks to how much it treasures its coal (it's the world's biggest exporter), it's been slow to pledge specific emissions cuts.
Michael Zammit Cutajar Vice chair of the ad hoc working group on long-term cooperative action under the UNFCCC
One of Yvo de Boer's predecessors as the UNFCCC's executive secretary, a veteran international climate change negotiator, and now Malta's 69-year-old ambassador for international environment affairs, which may not sound like much — but his committee is in charge of the text that negotiators will work on at Copenhagen, and he's likely to chair the summit's final session. He characterises the Copenhagen process as "like the evolutionary process in reverse, with the big bang at the end. The question is how big the bang will be."
Xie Zhenhua Minister and vice-chairman of the national development and reform commission, China
A 60-year-old engineering graduate, Communist party member since 1969, and President Hu Jintao's "special representative on climate change". Superficially talks a reasonable fight: "The global financial crisis has, no doubt, exacerbated the challenge of climate change. Since climate change is a more far-reaching and serious challenge, the world must not waver in its determination and commitment to address it." Pushing for developed countries to reduce their emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, and has fronted China's pledge to cut the carbon intensity of its output — ie, the amount of CO2 per unit of GDP — by 40%-45% in the next eight years. Close, in political terms, to his Indian counterpart Jairam Ramesh; China and India signed a joint agreement on climate change in October, in which both rejected legally binding caps on their CO2 output.