The strange air of tranquillity

Posted on 05. Nov, 2009 by Rosa Kouri in Canada

Rosa reveals zen negotiating tactics, accepts outcome

An air of tense calm hung low in the halls of the UN today. There were a few plenary negotiating sessions, but most happened behind closed doors. I didn’t catch sight of the Canadian lead negotiator, I can only assume he was in the midst of those closed sessions.

On my way home, I asked several people in the halls what happened throughout the day, most shrugged listlessly and gave me blank looks.

Despite their overenthusiastic responses, I managed to glean a bit of information. The talks seemed to have recovered from the walkout by the African Group of nations. When they left on Tuesday, the Kyoto Protocol discussions were suspended for twenty-four hours. There are mixed feelings as to whether it was a legitimate show of force, or if it wasted a day of valuable negotiating time. From what has been accomplished in a single day so far, it does not seem like much of a risk to me. It does not appear that most negotiators have a serious mandate to compromise a hard treaty. Instead, they are told to come here, debate unimportant details, and avoid real decisions.

Now everyone is lowering their expectations. From Yvo do Boer, the Executive Secretary of the talks, to Ban Ki Moon, the General Secrary of the UN, there is talk of achieving a ‘politically binding’ treaty in Copenhagen, as opposed to one which would be ‘legally binding’.

I tend to agree with those who criticize this direction – what’s the point of labouring over a treaty for 20 odd years, only to have a final outcome that no one is bound to follow? It’s the basic free-rider problem. In Canada, we’ve seen what has happened under the Kyoto Protocol so far, where the costs of non-compliance are still uncertain. Guess what, if non-compliance isn’t punished, then it will go unchecked. (Canada’s targets, or lack thereof, will be the subject of another blog).

With a global problem like this one, we need the big guns of the global governance system to step in. We need the right ammo to finish the fight and clean up the bad guys (I mean this in a bonafide pacifist sense, of course). Right now, our “guns” are laws. Political motivation won’t be enough, ultimately, to reverse the momentum of the current energy system.

Now, if we listen to Yvo, the political compromise is only an expedient stage for a few months while the details are ironed out for the legal treaty, to be passed sometime in 2010. I can see the underlying logic, we must accept the process, and everything will work eventually… But has there been some yoga or deep breathing in the backrooms that I’m unaware of? Is that why everyone is so calm?

Wow, all this zen patience will make blogging about this process absolutely scintillitating from now until then. I better just accept it.

Much love from Barcelona,

Rosa

Tags: African Group, Canada, Legally binding, Zen