Europe was recently found below ground
Posted on 03. Oct, 2009 by Jonathan Sundqvist in E.U., Sweden
Europe was found below ground, that is EU got the Fossil of the day the 30th of september and some people in Berlin handed it over to the Swedish embassy the 2nd of october! For those of you unknown to the shame the fossil of the day brings you I will explain. Everyday Climate action network, a large network of environmental NGOs, decides on which parties will receive this painfully disgraceful prize. The one and only criteria is by how much you stalled the negotiations that day. Then, mostly the youth, announces what parties will receive it.
The last day of september, EU had the dishonour of receiving fossil of the day together with Norway, Canada and Australia. They all received it for pushing to delete a paragraph that expressed a deep concern over the substantial gap between the resources required for mitigating the effects climate change and reductions of greenhouse gases in developing countries and the resources currently available.
I find it really difficult to understand that a country that is supposed to represent the most progressive of developed countries tries to cover the tracks of how responsible the developed countries should be. After all most developing countries will need all the help in the world to first of all adapt to changing climate and second of all reduce their own emissions.
So what happened when they handed over the fossil at the Swedish embassy? They were greeted friendly by the embassy and invited to climate seminars held there and promised hand it over to the ambassador. Most people are friendly, it’s like that here in the negotiations as well. The problem is the policy position. Maybe something like “there is a deep concern over the substantial gap between the ambition of real people and countries positions” should be written into the text as well? 
Hi Jonathan, thank you for this post. I was personally really shocked the more I read about this. Instead of deleting the reference to this gap, the developed countries should start focusing on delivering on their commitments. A fact’s a fact - the reality of the gap is not less real because the paragraph is deleted. But the reality is that the negotiations are being build on a falsified information base. That is really worrying.