Chairwoman of U.N. Conference Remains Upbeat. ClimateWire, November 3, 2009. "The job of Denmark's Connie Hedegaard, as chairwoman of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, is to lead negotiators from some 190 countries toward a deal that would replace the Kyoto Protocol. With only three weeks before the conference begins, there is a crescendo of voices around the world declaring that her job is impossible. Hedegaard disagrees. A former journalist who has a master's degree in literature and history, she is a skilled communicator who projects a determined confidence. She has been traveling all over the world telling anyone who would listen that a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen is not hopeless.
"Born in 1960, Hedegaard has had a meteoric rise in every career she has chosen. In 1984, she became the youngest member of the Danish Parliament, winning election on the Conservative Party list. In 1990, she left politics to work as a journalist, only to become head of radio news at the Danish Broadcasting Corp. four years later. In 2004, she was named environment minister, then, three years later, she became Denmark's first climate and energy minister, taking charge of the climate change negotiations. According to Danish media reports, she is in the running to become Europe's climate and energy commissioner, an appointment said to be favored by newly re-elected European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. She frequently bicycles from her home in a tony suburb to her office downtown.
"Among the biggest obstacles she sees to an agreement are the U.S. Senate's not passing a climate bill and disagreements within the European Union on financing climate aid to developing countries. Among the biggest losers if the Copenhagen summit fails to produce a binding agreement will be American businesses, Hedegaard said... 'The moment we postpone the deadline, we take off the pressure for delivering in Copenhagen... Now it's the time to deliver... I look forward to President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo a few hundred kilometers from here on Dec. 10 for his huge contributions to multilateralism and for giving hope to the world.'"
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