There was movement at the negotiations!
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Philip Ireland in Australia
Believe it or not, things are starting to move.
Now… when I say move, don’t take me too literally. I mean it in a kind of metaphorical way. A UNFCCC kind of way.
I have some stories from my first few days of negotiations to share with you to give you a sense of the exciting and frustrating environment that is UN climate negotiations.
Main plenary hall..... empty
Africa walks out! (then back in)
So…. on the first day, just as the talks around the Kyoto Protocol began, the African group ‘walked out’ because of a lack of commitment around mitigation targets. This put a pause to the negotiations.
So, there I was, ready for some firm negotiating action, and the talks are stopped before they get underway.
One of five days down.
Now, don’t get me wrong I don’t think the African group were out of line, but it was a surprise. One senior policy person said:
“It was a really surprising move that rattled many countries”
After a day (and long evening) of private negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol negotiation stream recommenced. A deal was struck! Developed nations promised to reprioritise making 2020 mitigation commitments.
Without real action, a threat of another walkout remains.
The adaptation stream…. sigh
It’s 3pm on the first day of negotiations, and like the little keen bean I am, I make my way to the first adaptation session (a personal interest of mine, and key point of the negotiations). So… there I am, myself and one other person off in the other side of the huge hall in silence (it was a little awkward).
Slowly over the next 20 minutes people slowly moved into the hall…. I thought these negotiations were on a tight schedule? I thought we desperately needed to cut the negotiation text down so we could reach an agreement at Copenhagen? Apparently not.
It got worse.
The chair then preceded to speak for 20 minutes, rather slowly, to say that the negotiating stream needs to move faster if they are going to reach an agreement by Copenhagen (no…. really?). Now while this may seem self-evident to most of you, it wasn’t to Saudi Arabia who preceded to complain for the next half hour. Believe it or not, they are unhappy that there is not more provision for them to receive compensation for lost oil revenue….. ha! Welcome to the UN, fun for all.
Australia gets asked the tough questions
Well, the highlight of my day today would’ve had to have been a session put on by Australia and the Alliance Of Small Island States (AOSIS). May I just say all credit to the Australian delegation for putting it on because it was a tough gig, considering their negotiating position.
After the Australian talk on their mitigation targets a presenter from AOSIS gave a great presentation on why we should limit warming to 1.5 Degrees Celcius. He also showed that a greenhouse gas concentration of 450ppm gives us a 60% chance of moving past 2 degrees of warming (that’s where things get bad). 450ppm is currently the ceiling that Australia is proposing.
60% is a pretty risky bet….
Well… in defence (of sorts) of Australia, lets not forget we have the highest number of poker machines per capita … IN THE WORLD (perhaps a good lesson in odds could help us change a few things?).
Ambassador reads your comments!
Today, while eating my humble lunch of patatas bravadas (deep fried potatoes… mmmm), Louise Hand, our ambassador on climate change wondered over with a print out of my last blog and your comments! Lobbying doesn’t get any easier than that. Keep it up!
Tracking for you (and in need of sleep, or more coffee)
Phil.
p.s. check out our Australian sister website A Climate For Change and Take Action.
The Adopter - Phillip Ireland
Phil grew up in Newcastle on the beautiful east coast of Australia. He's deeply concerned about the impacts of climate change on poor communities around the globe, which has shaped a passion for activism around these issues. Phil is a Ph.D. candidate at Macquarie University in Australia... read more»
Hey phil..
the negotiations sound like they are a strange combination of excitement and frustration! The place where decisions are made.. at the highest level.. but at the slowest pace!!
I imagine it would be like Ussain Bolt and Michael Schumacher playing chess…
I am not surprised Africa walked out.. I think that is a bold move and hopefully will catalyse the negotiations around finance. I am very glad they came back though!
Great blog! thanks for the updates!
Phil, I love your sense of humour in portraying what must be a very frustrating and in some ways very disappointing few days!
As you say, I think it is great that Australia was prepared to put themself in the hotseat - particularly as they must have known what the AOSIS position was. Perhaps this indicates that there might be a chance for Australia to move to stronger commitments if only enough pressure is put on. I certainly hope so!
Given our general rhetoric around being a leader in our region and supporting our Pacific neighbours, it would be nothing short of hypocritical to stick to targets that gave us a more than 1 in 2 chance of visiting devastating impacts on these countries!
While there’s not a lot of good news coming out of these talks so far it is at least heartening to know that the negotiating team seem to have good intentions (hosting the session with AOSIS, engaging with the UN tracker program).
I’m fairly unconvinced however, as to the effectiveness of “good intentions” in keeping warming below 1.5 degrees. Failure to keep warming below this level with spell disaster for many AOSIS nations. As a citizen of the country with the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world (Australia), I don’t want to be responsible for this. So come on negotiators - tell Penny Wong and Kevin Rudd what we need to do to avoid being responsible for destroying these nations’ way of life. They don’t appear to be listening to us so hopefully you can convince them of the need to increase our emissions reduction targets to at least 40% on 1990 levels by 2020.
Hey Phil
Thanks for the entertaining blog… it sounds pretty frustrating though!
It’s encouraging to hear about Australia in the AOSIS session. Surely they have to change their position with those odds? It would be ludicrous to continue with their current, weak targets!
thanks again!
I have recently taken part in a Model UN conference, imitating the COP15, and I was Tuvalu. It was an emotional experience. I don’t think I can really begin to imagine what it would be like, but at times I actually almost cried, as the nation I was representing was facing literal elimination, yet other countries were so much less than they were capable. Not only did their footdragging screw Tuvalu’s chances, it also doomed them. Their shortsightedness was shameful. Thanks, Australia. Fancy a few climate refugees any time soon?
Cheers Phil for great updates - plus, Banjo Patterson at the UNFCCC! Solid gold mate.
I’m really concerned about the vanishing from the REDD text (under SBSTA, I think) of any safeguards against the conversion of natural forests to plantations being funded by the REDD scheme. Land conversion has been such a problem under the FAO definition of forests contained in the LULUCF rules that I would have expected everyone to recognise that it needs to be prevented in REDD, or we’ll end up with a massive expansion of funded logging and net ecological damage. I’m sure that a few months ago in their REDD submission the Aus government included forest protection in their policy; plus, I remember Ambassador Hand mentioning that Australia remains opposed to ‘nice logging’ (her words - great phrase!), so I’m hoping that the negotiating team is trying to get the text re-inserted before the close of the Barca negotiations.
There’s a bit more coverage here: http://bit.ly/3gI88C
I’m interested to hear how the Aussie negotiators are progressing on this - are they negotiating to have this text re-inserted? 10 words could make such a monumental difference to the effectiveness of REDD that I’d really like to hope that they are. I would have thought that they’d be committed to making sure that it’s as good a scheme as possible, especially given Australian focus on REDD projects in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. A quick question of the negotiators about this would be hugely appreciated here, mate.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks all for your comments!
Thanks for the update on REED Josh. I will be meeting with some of the negotiating team today, and perhaps the ambassador, so I will pass your question on. Let you know what I hear!
I’m pleased the government held talks with the small island states, but Australia has not gone far enough. I don’t wnat to be responsible for the destruction of someone’s home especially as those involved have absolutely no say in the matter. Australians need to do everything in their power to prevent this tragedy from happening.