Hopenhagen became Nopenhagen – public diplomacy during COP15

In connection with the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) in Copenhagen in december 2009, the Danish government set up a website, cop15.dk, featuring news, articles, links and information about the conference and related issues. Visitors could look at webcast live from the conference and send “Climate Greetings” that were shown on a large screens on different locations. The official website had about 4 million visitors in total. It is clear that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark put in a significant effort in communicating with the public. They also launched campaigns through social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The UN, together with the International Advertising Association launched a campaign called Hopenhagen – a symbolic name for the role the conference were suppose to play among the public. The aim was to support COP15, and deliver an optimistic message to the global citizens that they actually had a great chance to influence the political leaders. The idea was to empower people to engage in the conference, for instance by signing petititions and appoint a 'Hopenhagen Ambassador', and to inspire people doing good things around the world. John Clang, a photograher, created a short film as well as posters for the Hopenhagen campaign, with the idea of “bring to life the visual representation of Hopenhagen’s citizens”. The Under-Secretary for Public-Diplomacy in Denmark stated that: "Our main objective is that an ambitious agreement will be concluded in Copenhagen, and we want to applaud the Hopenhagen campaign for its emotional and inspirational messages. Hopenhagen is a perfect way to engage the world and make everyone part of the discussion and solution at the December "COP15 meeting."

The goal of the conference was to set up new climate agreements, particularly about an increase in carbon emission cuts and financial funds to developing nations for climate-friendly improvements in technology and production, for 2012. The outcome, however, was no binding agreement for the future. Just a few agreements were made, with barely any significant when it comes to combat global warming. Government representatives from 193 countries participated in the negotiations, as well as many NGOs, industry groups and civil society organizations.

The failure of the conference can be analyzed in many ways. In an article by Shamus Cooke, published on The Market Oracle, the unsatisfying results can be illustrated by two events. First, the huge police actions in the beginning of the conference, where thousands of climate activists and protestors were arrested. Second, the large number of limousine rented in Copenhagen during the conference. The assessment of this, is that public diplomacy extensively failed in the respect that the general public, the people in the civil society, engaged in the issues of climate change, obtained no response from the political leaders representing them. The public diplomacy was aimed at fooling the public that they could involve themselves in saving the planet by participate in organized events around the town, such as paint earth-skaped ballons and send them to the sky with messages to save the climate. But in reality, people were too frustrated to buy such nonsense. The talks were strictly nothing else but talks. Talks among the elite, representing their own governments' interests rather than those of the climate. When the people, from grassroot level, tried to get involved and through different forms of action, put pressure on the politicians, they faced arrests, insults and police violence. The concerns of the people were met with military force while big business and national governments could travel safely in limouines, more concerned with the national economies than to save the planet. People were aware of this, illusrated by the slogans of many protesters' banners: “bla bla bla... ACT NOW!” and “Nature doesn't compromise”.The message to the global citizens, through a fancy designed campaign, had been: "Engage yourself, but not too much".

Democracy Now!'s reporting from COP15 included an interview with Naomi Klein, who claimed that Obama uses the tools of multilateralism to destroy multilateralism. This means U.S., as many other countries are gathering together in multilateral negotiations without any intention of reaching any agreements. Public diplomacy have effectively been used in the sense that Obama was awarded with the Nobel Peace Price for his multilateral attempts to strenghten international diplomacy. The reality, on the other hand, that he undermined it. Cooke also point on another event, when the Bush administration effectively used public diplomacy to justify their invasion of Iraq. While engaging in fake-multilateralism on the international stage, Bush succesfully inlfluenced the U.S. public opinion and gained their support.

The point is that UN, the governments, politicians and the media tried to give the people an impression that there was hope in the COP15 meeting. That there was hope that economic aid and carbon emission caps could save the planet. The powerful leaders, governments and big corporations targeted public diplomacy on the global audience, hoping to get positive response. That people would get the idea that they took their responsibility. That they were willing to come to an agreement, to save our precious world. But in reality, they were just quarrelling over money as usual. The governments, to a high degree controlled by big coorporations, were not interested in saving the world, only to make profits. That's why COP15 turned out to be such a big failure. Not only did they fatally failed to reach any significant agreements, they also let the citizens of the world down. They failed with diplomacy in both respects. So much hope generated by all the campaigns, posters, movies and media reports, for nothing. If all the campaigns were launched to inspire the public to take action and put pressure upon the leaders to come to an agreement, it didn't work. The political elite don't seem to care about demands from the civil society, as long as governments to a considerable degree are controlled by big corporations. When no agreement was reached, the whole scope of public diplomatic campaigns were ridiculed. Hopenhagen became Nopenhagen.

Democracy Now!'s interview with Naomi Klein (and Martin Khor):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLu_wYXIaog&feature=player_embedded

Shamus Cooke's article on The Market Oracle:

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/UserInfo-Shamus_Cooke.html

Hopenhagen's website:

http://www.hopenhagen.org/

John Clang's stop-motion movie, and more:

http://www.youtube.com/hopenhagen