Be Part of the Climate Debate

Denmark invites the entire world to take part in the global debate leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference 2009

The Danish government invites the world to participate in the global debate leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15), which will take place in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Today three initiatives will be launched at the host country website for the conference, www.cop15.dk, all aimed at reaching out and encouraging a global debate on climate change.

• The Climate Quiz allows visitors to cop15.dk to test their climate knowledge. Visitors can also compare climate knowledge with friends. The quiz can be accessed at www.quiz.cop15.dk
• Climate Thoughts is a unique visual representation of climate opinions from visitors to cop15.dk as well as well-known climate thinkers. Climate Thoughts can be accessed at www.thoughts.cop15.dk
• The Climate Game allows visitors to cop15.dk to experiment with CO2 reductions in an entertaining environment. The Climate Game can be accessed at www.game.cop15.dk

The Danish hosts of COP15 have also launched a number of ways to get information about climate issues and participate in the climate debate:

• On the Climate Thinkers Blog, visitors to cop15.dk can read and comment on opinions from some of the world’s foremost climate opinion-makers. The blog can be accessed at www.blog.cop15.dk
• On Facebook, it is possible to show support of the UN Climate Change Conference 2009. The COP15 page on Facebook can be accessed through www.facebook.cop15.dk
• On Twitter, the Danish government posts regular news updates on climate change. The COP15 Twitter account can be reached through www.twitter.cop15.dk

The Danish government expects to step up its web-based outreach efforts for COP15 in the period leading up to the conference. All activities are focused on allowing visitors to cop15.dk to interact with each other, to gain better understanding of climate change issues, and to allow visitors of the website to interact with participants of the climate change conference.

So – What happened to the Danish-Jordanian Trade?

Some time ago I promised to publish the Danish-Jordanian trade figures for 2008 on this site.

Trade from Denmark to Jordan grew with 19% in 2008 and export to Denmark from Jordan 10,1%.

The numbers are still not impressive but the export figures are the highest to Jordan since 2003: 58 mio. USD export to Jordan (49 mio. USD in 2007) and 2 mio. USD export to Denmark in 2008. These figures do not take into account the trade that is reexported to other Arab countries – presumably mostly Iraq.

Adding services (only figures available from 2007) Jordan has a small trade surplus of 8 mio USD based on 31 mio. USD of Jordanian services to Denmark and 23 mio. USD of Danish services to Jordan.  

So 2008 turned out to be a good year for trade between Jordan and Denmark.

The Ombudsman and journalism in Jordan

The other day Al Ghad ran a story  (for English read this part) about the Jordanian Ombudsman institution and my country’s involvement in its establishment. Basically, the journalist had found an anonymous source claiming that Denmark was supposed to fund the institution for the next three years but because of disagreement about the structure of the ombudsman we had withdrawn from the commitment and Jordan had lost “millions”.

To my knowledge the paper had not tried to get a comment from the Embassy or me – which I understand since that would have deprived them this front-page. Like everyone else I am frustrated by the widespread self censorship but a bit more self-criticism and professionalism wouldn’t be bad at all.

Anyway, another Jordanian daily called me the same morning and asked me to comment on the story, which I did as follows (questions omitted).

“The article is apparently based on some misunderstandings that could have been clarified if the newspaper had asked the Danish embassy for comments before printing the story. Denmark has been supporting the establishment of the Jordanian ombudsman institution since 2004 and it has always been the intention to end financial support with the formal establishment of the institution. Originally it was foreseen to end the financial support in 2007 but the grants were extended until end 2008 when the institution was established. The ombudsman institution is one among many other projects that we support in Jordan through the Danish-Jordanian Partnership Program.”

“Denmark has been supporting the technical unit for the establishment of the ombudsman and a number of seminars and visits to other ombudsman institutions in preparation of the Jordanian law and technical regulations establishing the institution. There has been neither pledge nor intention on the Danish side to fund an up and running working institution. Such an important national institution needs to draw its main funding from the national budget voted by parliament and not from foreign countries. An ombudsman dependent on funds outside the national budget could raise questions as regards the independence of the institution which would be damaging to its credibility. To my knowledge the Jordanian ombudsman institution is today funded from the national budget for the financial year 2009 – as it should be.”

“No […Denmark is not obliged to financially support the ombudsman…], not after this grant expired end last year. What we hope is that the Jordanian ombudsman – when he once again has been appointed – seeks partners among other European ombudsman institutions including the Danish ombudsman for technical cooperation and exchange of best practices. We will try to help facilitate such exchanges between different ombudsman institutions and their Jordanian counterpart.”

“The ombudsman setup that was chosen in Jordan is not in all aspects similar to the Danish counterpart. One reason for this is the difference in our constitutions. Our ombudsman is attached to the parliament only, where in Jordan he is primarily attached to the executive – the government. It is not an unknown model in some countries but it might raise questions as to his independence of the executive branch. None the less it is important that the new ombudsman quickly seeks to establish relations to the International Ombudsman Institution in Vienna in order to be internationally acknowledged as an ombudsman institution. But what is also very important is to understand that any ombudsman institution has to take into account the local and national context in which he functions. That is why Denmark never has sought to impose a specific model on Jordan.”

“Since 2004 we have been supporting the Jordanian ombudsman project with a total amount of around 1 million USD.”

Ad Dustour and Al Rai have run stories about the ombudsman today – both touching on this issue.

Update 7.5.09: Minister of State for Legal Affairs (and former ombudsman) Salem Khazaleh corrects Al Ghad on Petra News Agency. And a long story on Ammonnews.net with contradicting statements. I tried to post a comment but I don’t think it was accepted.