Climate negotiations are only mopping the floor when we need to fix a leaky roof.

Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by Cara Bevington in Australia

I think that I have written before about the “bubble” that is the UN climate negotiations.

It’s an incredibly strange scenario to be in - you are mostly confined to the one building for the 2 weeks of meetings, eating the same food, seeing the same people everyday. You very quickly start to talk in a strange codex peppered with the hundreds of acronyms that make up the negotiating text. Water cooler conversations are soap opera-esque in that we are continually talking about who said what, and who might say what – but unlike soap operas there’s little sign of love.

Today is the penultimate day of the talks, tomorrow we will walk out of the Bangkok conference centre for the last time. When we leave there will be just one week of scheduled negotiating time left before we reach Copenhagen.

I wonder what feeling I will leave Bangkok with, what feeling Australia’s lead negotiator – Louise Hand - will leave with, what feeling NGOs and government delegates from all over the world will leave with?

Will we leave with a sense that we did everything we possibly could and more to work towards the global agreement that must be signed if we are serious about avoiding a humanitarian and environment catastrophe? Or will we leave concerned about the short road to Copenhagen?

I have been walking through the bubble with a heavy heart for the past few days. The negotiations are moving so slowly – while there has been some positive forward movement on a number of technical issues - like adaptation and technology - we have seen absolutely no movement on the key issues that not only will make or break these talks, but define the future of our planet.

The negotiating block of most of the world’s developing countries and small island states, the G77 and China are worried that developed countries are trying to squirm their way out from the commitments that they have already agreed to under Kyoto. The international youth held a press conference yesterday passing a motion of no confidence, they are scared that with the current lack of ambition and leadership from developing countries that we simply are not going to make it.

While all of these conversations happen within the UN, the real world continues to swirl around us. People across Asia have been devastated by horrific environmental disasters over the past week. From flooding in the Philippines and India, to tsunamis and earthquakes in the Pacific.

While the storms currently ravaging East Asia and the Pacific are not necessarily attributable to climate change, they should act as a powerful reminder of what is at stake in the global climate talks in Bangkok.

Scientists predict that rainfall and tropical storms in East Asia are likely to become more intense as a result of the changing climate. Some scientists have also recorded an increase in intensity in tropical cyclones in recent years.

What I find so frustrating is that we know the science, we know the reality of human experience, but we are acting in such a way that suggests we are ignoring what we know to be true.

Earlier this week, the World Resource Institute, one of the world’s pre-eminent climate research bodies released a report showing that commitments made by developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, when added together, fall far too short of stabilising global temperatures at a level that averts dangerous climate change. This knowledge is not new – the UNFCCC and AOSIS came out with similar statements and figures during the Bonn talks earlier this year.

Emissions reductions are the single most important thing we can do when it comes to tackling climate change. Clement, who stars in the video above, says that there is no point even taking about adaptation if we are not serious about emission reductions.

Clement, an Oxfam Humanitarian Officer and part of the government delegation for Malawi puts it like this: “At the moment we are living in a house with a leaky roof, but all we are doing is mopping up the puddles of water that are forming on the floor. We must climb onto the roof, and fix the leek at its source.”

Here in Bangkok, the focus of the Australian delegation has been to get the “rules” for emissions reductions sorted, eg how will emissions from forests be treated, what is the role of technology transfer? They are not prepared to talk about targets until the rules are laid down.

While this may sound pragmatic, in the context of these talks it is like spending hours mixing a filling for a pie without any regard for making the crust that holds it together.

While the “rules” are important – what we need to see first and foremost is high level ambition. We have the technical knowledge – what we don’t have is the ambition.

Why is ambition lacking? An article published in Grist today suggest that this is not due to a lack of leadership from key politicians, it’s a lack of pressure from civil society.

While I don’t want to take Rudd and our key Ministers off the hook – but it’s time for us to step it up so they have no choice.