Bonn, first day.
Posted on 01. Jun, 2009 by Andrea Cinquina in Adopt a Negotiator, Italy, Uncategorized
Have you ever thought about how it actually might look at a conference with almost 200 countries on such a sensitive matter as climate change?
Lucky me, I was already a bit prepared in the field. The problem is that at conferences like these, you’ll always find hundred of acronyms. U.N.F.C.C.C., A.W.G.-K.P., A.W.G.-L.C.A., A.O.S.I.S., L.D.C., R.E.D.D., etc… yesterday night I was even wondering: but if I’m getting thirsty during the conference should I ask for a glass of W.A.T.E.R.?
Anyway, the Bonn conference has just started, and it’s a very important meeting on the road to Copenhagen, especially considering that there are only six months left.
It is actually a kind of strange feeling to walk in a U.N. conference for the first time of your life, it is like your first day at school. We get in, take our badges, wear our shirts; there is a very important message on them, and the speaker for Indonesia just repeats it live while I’m writing this blog: the clock is tick tick ticking! We must not waste our time!
So we walk inside the Maritim, the hotel that hosts the conference, and soon we face a banner that comes out from the second floor: “survival is not negotiable!”. 
I started feeling good; emotions that come back during the opening sessions talks, when Grenada negotiators, speaking on behalf of A.O.S.I.S.(the Alliance of Small Island States, some of which are going to disappear because of the increasing sea level), say that the text the Convention it is working at it is not just words for them, but life!
It is the end of the first day, and the C.A.N. (climate action network) nominates the “fossil of the day”, in other words, the country that did their best to do their worst.
The third prize was for Iceland, for announcing its 2020 reduction target to be a 15% only (below 1990 levels), which is far below the 25-40% agreed in Bali.
The second place is for Canada, stating that all parties should undertake all actions under the Bali Action Plan.
And the first place.. Australia! They offered a 24% reduction target by 2020 only under the condition that particularly developing countries contribute financially!
But there are two weeks in front of us, so still room for negotiations.
See you tomorrow then, for more news on the negotiations, on the Italian NGO active here in Bonn, new fossils of the day .. hoping to meet the Italian negotiation team very soon!
Now that Obama’s in office, Canada’s doing absolutely awful in terms of climate change legislation. Harper has scrapped 3 regulation plans and plans to do absolutely nothing until the US’s plan is fully underway - 2016 or so. I really wish I was old enough to vote so I could do my part in getting a PM who actually respects my generation’s future.
Have you seen my blog? It deals with how climate change relates to issues such as credibility, responsible journalism, and risk management. I think you might enjoy it.
You can probably just get there by clicking on my name.
Thanks
Kate
Hi Kate,
no, i cant click or you name..
send over your blog address!
cheers
Andrea
Ciao Andrea,
I think the project is great and the work you do necessary in order to get an insight view on what’s going on in Bonn right now, from a different perspective and not only through media filtration mainly. Keep up the good work!
Cheers
Torsten
Sorry - by “my name” I meant “climatesight”, up at the top. I guess I should stop sigining comments with “Kate”. :)