Jan, me, and a normal sized table…
Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by annac in E.U., United Kingdom
I swear the UN tables are made for giants!
One thing that I’ve said before, is that negotiators are humans too.
Sometimes we all forget that when we are forced to meet with them in stuffy conference rooms, around gigantic tables (I may be small but I’m pretty sure the UN tables were designed for giants!)
So this morning it was really nice to be able to meet with Jan and Harry in the café (where the tables are normal sized), over a coffee, and have an informal chat about what has been going on here and how we are all feeling.
The mood around the building is that we have seen a little progress here. Of course it’s nowhere near the scale we need (lets not get carried away!) but Jan’s thoughts were that some had been made, specifically on the state of the text.
Coming into this meeting I bashed on a lot about the need to reduce the text. Unfortunately that has not happened (actually I lie we have lost about 20 of the 192 pages….). However Jan felt that progress had been made in its clarity. It is now apparently much easier to read and see where the points to negotiate are and in what order.
Jan described it as reading like a story now rather than a jumbled mix of words.
But our next task is to get everyone on the same page of this story!
And quickly!
Both Jan and Harry agreed with pretty much everyone else in the building that the pace has again been much, much too slow, and that we have some major politics standing in the way…
Until we sort these politics out we will never be on the same page.
And that is where the crux of the problem lies!
(and a problem to which I hope you’re not expecting me to give an answer…I’m only a blogger after all, if I could answer those questions I’d be secretary general of the UN!).
As well as talking about the Bangkok negotiations we talked about what they would be up to before Copenhagen.
Next week there is a major economies (i.e rich countries) forum coming up, and we in the UK are hosting it along with our friend Obama! They said this could be a place where we see some action. Though the exclusivity of the club is definitely an issue, this is the sort of forum where politics are definitely aired.
We also have SUPER WEEK coming up for the EU where our negotiating positions will be set, and though huge announcements are doubtful there was hints of some form of progress on finance.
In between all that, and not forgetting the Barcelona UN climate talks, our negotiators will also be having meetings with many other delegations. They are also apparently responsible for trying to knot out the practicalities of our positions (you know small things like where the money is actually going to come from) back in the UK.
It’s a busy life being a negotiator!
Of course we also discussed what we are all expecting out of Copenhagen. I think a good way to describe Jan and Harry’s response would be cautious optimism. The fact that we are at the end of two weeks of very long and difficult talks jades everyone a bit, negotiators and activists alike. And with extreme tiredness the task ahead seems even greater. But they definitely still had hope, which is more than a lot of people in the building.
As the conversation roamed we talked about many other things, including how the activism around the conference impacts them and how their role is linked to our government ie. what happens next june after our general election…
But that’s for another day, another blog.
Most of all it was just nice (along with getting some much needed caffeine) to put some humanity back into this process. For me and I hope for them.
The more humanity we have in the process the more faith I have in us pushing this on towards some form of acceptable deal.
So I hope we can continue to meet as things get more and more hectic.
Because one thing Jan was eager to tell me was that she didn’t have a single weekend off between now and Copenhagen.
I replied…
I guess that makes two of us!