At the recent summit in Brussels, there are several things which makes you wonder of the European countries’ real willingness to engage in the climate change challenges. Earlier this year, all the 27 European otherwise largely agreed on finding solutions to the climate challenges before the ending of this year. But a financial crisis appeared out of the blue sky and suddenly everything was changed.

But what was the background for the sudden unwillingness to be constructive in addressing the common climate change and has the financial crisis anything to do with the climate?

One thing is certain – the global climate agreement was sent off on shaky grounds when the Eastern European states - supposedly because they were nervous over the financial situation – threatened to veto the negotiations about the climate package. The deal was saved because the stronger EU-countries held and gave big concessions.

But how can it be that politicians are always good to respond and give big concessions when they are trapped in a corner. Wouldn’t it be much easier if the climate battle was fought proactively and with a genuine desire to put the funding that is needed into it? It is quite incredible to look at the massive amounts of money now being used by the world’s major states to buy banks and alleviate the financial crisis.

Politicians have really dug deep into their pockets and suddenly it seemed as everything was possible – the argument was in relation to the climate issue – that if the economies were not in order, then there would be no money to use in the many improvements in Green Tech Solutions and reduction of Co2 emissions. Conversely, there has been the precise same argument at the current climate summit in Brussels - if the climate crisis is not solved now, we will get a financial crisis in the long run.

Today in the Danish newspaper Information, there is an interview with the former CEO, now director of the Danish company Grundfos, Niels Due Jensen. He is concerned about how the current financial and economic crisis appears to steal political attention from the long-term sustainability challenges.

“I do not know what it takes to summon up the politicians. I speak from the heart, and I am deeply frustrated that there is not happening more concerning the climate change challenges. It is far too slow.”

And he continues

“I can understand that some countries are taking their time to consider and say that their first priority is to rescue the banking system. Are we not through the financial crisis and ensure the best part of the world’s banking system, there will be no solutions to introduce cleaner technology. But it is difficult just to understand the staggering amounts that the world’s governments are now ready to use in order to alleviate the financial crisis, in relation to what they are willing to use in order to ensure that we get the necessary reductions in CO2 emissions”.

It may seem as if politicians only want to tackle the current problems, but at the same time they forget the problems inherent in the future and they only gets worse and worse every day. Some of the political excuses have been that it was important to address people’s problems in employment and the economy first, but several surveys, both in Denmark and abroad show that people fear global warming more than the financial crisis. At the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende’s web site, there is currently an web survey, asking users what they fear most - the financial crisis, or global warming? Currently there are delivered 4,611 votes and the responses shows that 44 percent says they fear of the financial crisis the most; while 49 percent says global warming (7 percent says they don’t know).

It may seem like a Damned if you do / Damned if you don’t situation where politicians have chosen to focus on the short-termed problem, but we must be careful that the long-term perspective does not disappear in these priorities.

There is no doubt that if we really saw the climatic challenges as real major problem, in line with the financial crisis, the politicians would already have solved it with the same zeal as is done with the financial crisis. Politicians current strategy is a denigration of the climate challenge and makes little faith in a big global deal next year. In that concern we have not alleviated the finansial crisis – we have only postponed an even larger catastrophy in the future.

Yesterday EU leaders made it very clear that the agreement about the union climate package still is to be negotiated and signed this year during the French EU presidency. It is a positive and important signal for the possibilities of a global agreement next year in Copenhagen.

“The objectives remain unchanged, the calendar remains the same,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a news conference at the end of the two-day summit. “The deadline on climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it,” he said.

Although all 27 leaders in the end agreed to stick to the objectives, Sarkozy acknowledged that he faced a tough task ahead in getting a unanimous deal on how to share out the burden of the switch to cleaner energy by the December deadline.

In a compromise on climate change, the EU-leader agreed to stick to the December deadline but promised that he will work hard to ensure a fair sharing of the burden to avoid penalizing the former Communist nations who depend largely on carbon-heavy coal for their power.

The EU plan would cost governments and business billions of euros (dollars) to implement new cleaner technologies, renewable energy sources, and reduce emissions from cars and factories. Italian President Silvio Berlusconi said that it would put Europe at a disadvantage to competitors in China and the United States. Supporters of the plan countered that taking a world lead in switching to green energy would bring economic advantages to Europe in the long run and thereby strengthen the European position in the Global markets.

The seven eastern European countries that were against the negotiating about the climate package have now been written into the French EU presidency conclusions of the summit that all nations must approve the agreement before it can be adopted at the next EU summit in December.

EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, acknowledges after the summit that EU leaders had some intense negotiations, and there is still a long way to a complete the agreement in December.

“Let’s be honest: We are far from finished with the agreement, and we have a lot of work to do before December”, Barroso said.

Sarkozy’s determination and support from Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown strengthens the Danish Governments ambitions about making the EU leaders akknowledge and sign the climate and energy package, which is absolutely necessary in order to reach a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009 .

The Danish government’s big ambition for a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December next year, now comes under extreme pressure.

Earlier on in March 2007 EU countries were determined and agreed on a so-called 20-20-20 plan. The EU must in 2020 cut CO2 emissions with 20 percent, saving 20 percent through energy efficiency and collect 20 percent of energy supply from renewable sources.

At an EU summit today in Brussels, during the climate package discussion, several European countries led by Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany argued that the financial crisis should lead to the climate requirements for industry should be more lenient because the crisis already threatens to develop into an economic downturn with rising unemployment and recession in several countries.

Denmark had hoped that today’s summit could lead to a breakthrough in the difficult talks about how the Climate bill could be distributed between the 27 individual countries.

Today in the nationwide newspaper Berlingske Tidende the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard (C) said that the climate skeptic countries are wrong.

“It is clear that the financial crisis has some costs here and now. But energy is just more and more expensive. Therefore, increased energy efficiency is the road to a better national economy. “

Furthermore Connie Hedegaard thinks that the 27 countries should draw lessons from the current financial crisis and that it can help the countries in the endeavor of solving the climate crisis. She said:

“The world has shown that when the challenges are urgent enough and sufficiently acute, we can actually handle things. It is the same sort of leadership that is needed to to address the climate crisis.”

She is being backed up by EU commission president José Manuel Barroso. Yesterday he urged the 27 EU countries not to risk the fight for a better climate because of the current problems. Barroso warned that it will damage the EU’s credibility in the International negotiations if the climate ambitions are being withdrawn. It will put a global climate agreement at stake, he said.

At the same time the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned, that it is a misunderstanding to withdraw the climate promises to alleviate the financial crisis. A climate agreement to the contrary assist governments to prevent similar crises in the future, because the agreement among other things, reduces EU dependence on imported energy, as it contributes for growth to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Angela Merkel has indicated that she still basically supports the EU’s climate package but she requires much more flexibility and a guarantee that secures the great German steel and automobile industries and other energy-intensive firms such as cement and aluminum factories being protected against unfair competition and furthermore receives some kind of discount.

Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, has simultaneously talked about postponing the climate agreement in the light of the financial crisis, so it would not - as scheduled fall into place in December in Copenhagen.

Furthermore the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on arrival at the EU summit in Brussels said that Poland expects that its coal-based fuel economy are protected from the adverse effects of climate plans. Poland, which uses large quantities of coal in its energy supply, threatened to lay veto on the EU’s ambitious climate plans, if there is no special attention given to their claims.

The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen urges the countries to come to an understanding about the need for climate package agreement now. Today shortly after his arrival in Brussels he made it clear that consensus in the EU on the climate package before new year is a prerequisite in order to get the rest of the world to sign a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. He said:

“- Financial Crisis or not, it’s common sense to invest in energy efficiency. And the EU Commission’s proposal has taken into account countries such as Poland.”

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is under pressure of finding a solution to this problem before long and calls the utterances from some countries for “very worrying”.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is going to discuss climate and energy-politics with Barroso in Brussels. Barroso and French president Sarkozy is some of the strongest allies in the pursuit of coming to an agreement about the climate package before the end of the year, where the climate-skeptical country Czech Republic takes the EU-presidency

Copenhagen, Kolding and Skive recently were selected as Energy Towns in Denmark. In order to become an Energy Town, the municipality must be a model town in climate and energy. It has to be committed to making a strong effort in this area, which is well thought out and ambitious, both on a national and international scale. Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” writes that a total of 13 municipalities had submitted applications.

It was the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard who announced the winners. Connie Hedegaard says to Jyllands-posten: “The three municipalities have been chosen because they were the very best among a very qualified group of applicants. It is highly encouraging to see the effort the municipalities are making. They are committed, achieve results and have ambitious plans. The applicant municipalities are in many ways front-runners, and I am convinced that their work can become a visible source of inspiration for other municipalities and towns, also outside the country’s borders.”

It is a long journey towards a binding global climate agreement. But small steps are already being taken in Denmark in order to show the world how to come up with ideas that can reduce man-made greenhouse gasses. For example in a public-private partnership governmental institutions and business organizations has joined forces in order to inform about and promote climate friendly technologies and products in the run up to the global climate conference. It is called the Climate Consortium.

One of the outcomes of the partnership will be a massive presscampaign with the objective to inform the rest of the world about the progress in Danish companies in terms of Green tech solutions and the progress with other climate friendly projects. for example another one will be the creation of an Internet portal about Danish sustainable and climate friendly energy technology. It is also the intention of the members in the partnership to arrange political and business visits for climate and energy interested foreign visitors. And not least they will focus on education, training and job creation within the energy field.

In a little over a year from now Copenhagen/Denmark will host a global climate meeting the so-called COP15 (Conference of Parties). The Danish Government’s goal is to enter into a binding global climate agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 30-December 11, 2009.

The agreement will apply to the period after 2012. The ambition is for the agreement to include as many countries as possible, and that the agreement must contribute to a reduction in man-made greenhouse gases which have a negative effect on our climate system.

The COP15 consists of environment ministers who meet once a year to discuss the convention’s developments. “It is expected that ministers and officials from 189 countries will take part.” At least 10,000 people, including from countries with observer status, industry groups and non-government organizations are expected to attend the conference.