The gap between NGO and EU
Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by Jonathan Sundqvist in E.U., Sweden
Today I was on a meeting with the Swedish delegation. Since Sweden is currently the presidency of the European Union all other heads of delegates also joined in but not saying much (after all Sweden has the presidency : ). NGOs from all over Europe took the opportunity to present what they thought the Eu presidency could do better onwards.
So then the discussions started. There was a lot of discussion of how the European Union should take the leadership in these negotiations. What Anders maintained through the discussions is that Europe still are the leaders in these climate talks and are absolutely doing the best to continue to be the leader. However the NGOs continually tried to point out examples where EU could do more and how they are actually perceived by other parties as lacking and not at all constructive. In the end there was quite a big gap between what the NGOs and what Anders & EU thought. My thought is that the NGOs wouldn’t really say all these things if it weren’t a grain of truth in them.
Today I also walked around in the plenary asking some people from the southern countries what they actually think about the European Union as the leader in the climate talks. Most of the ones I talked to said that they weren’t too impressed. One of the delegates said that EU think they do the right stuff, and sometimes they do. But sometimes they are way out there. For instance the delegate from Bolivia mentioned that EU had the same target in the making of Kyoto protocol as it has now; 20 %. I ask myself, is that a sign of leadership? I know that EU is trying to ramp up it’s target up to 30 %, but shouldn’t they take way more commitment when keeping in mind that Europe as region is the world’s largest economy in the world? After all Indonesia for example just announced the commitment of 26 % unilaterally and 41 % if they would get support, and Indonesia isn’t even a developed country!
During this meeting he also said that if Eu would have turned out more public money, would things have changed in the negotiations? No, he didn’t think so. He said that he didn’t believe that finance would be a driver in these negotiations. The funny thing is that after this meeting I met a random delegate from the south and after I introduced myself from Sweden he blurted out ‘hey why don’t you ask the Eu to put some more money on the table’.
Even if Eu has good intentions about this process, if they really want to be the climate leader they have been so articulate about – they should start listen and act a more.
Must have been late again while you wrote this, some @westerwave style sentences in there ;-) The final question to delegates is: How can they sleep, while their beds are burning? http://www.bit.ly/bedsareburning