Frenetic Friday

Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by Rosa Kouri in Canada

Briefings, fossils, and more of the same

Today’s been a busy day for Canada.

Though I have to admit, it started slow for this poor tracker. Bleary-eyed after a late night blogging, I dutifully hauled myself out of bed at 6:30 and crawled onto the special shuttle bus to the conference centre. I arrived just in time to make my way through UN security, sprint down the long halls to the Canadian public gallery, and arrive breathlessly in time for the 8:00 am public briefing.

This morning, the briefing with Chief Negotiator Michael Martin was crammed tight to the walls, and packed with questions from youth delegates. As per usual, Mr. Martin successfully conveyed a small amount of information in a long period of time (the hallmark of an accomplished diplomat). He deflected many of the difficult questions posed to him by the youth delegates.

As far as any new ‘intelligence’ on Canada’s position, nothing startling came up. Canada is sticking to its 3% mid-term target (below 1990 levels). We have no new plans for future adaptation funding. We are ostensibly supporting a ‘constructive and global’ solution here in Copenhagen. When asked directly about Canada’s position on the suspended talks, Mr. Martin answered that it seemed to be a tension within the G77 and he did not envision a controversy around proposing the contact group as Tuvalu had suggested. Questions about domestic policy were directed towards domestic legislators.

But, unlike Canada’s immovable position, some things did change today. There were many informal meetings today, most closed to observers, as I discovered when I tried to ‘track’ Mr. Martin into the main plenary. On the international stage, the Alliance of Small Island States released a proposed Copenhagen Protocol today. This protocol insists on support for the least developed countries, stresses the 350ppm goal (see 350.org for more info on that), and works towards a goal of maximum 1.5 degrees climate change (most proposals only aim for 2 degrees). A new text for the negotiating track on Long-Term Cooperative Action (self-explanatory title) was also published this morning, given to delegates only.

In case I lost you with that paragraph… basically: lots of meetings, some position papers.

For Canada specifically, some reports have come out on negotiations throughout the week. During a working group on the shared vision for the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Co-operative Action (AWG-LCA in unbearable-UN-acronym-speech), rumour has it that Canada advocated that this sentence be deleted: Furthermore, it shows that the economics of ambitious and bold mitigation action pays better than shy efforts, thereby reducing the risk of crossing tipping points that could result in irreversible climate change”. Hmmm…. I wonder what’s wrong with mentioning tipping points? or ambitious and bold mitigation action? Earlier this week, during a working group on article 2.3 and 3.14, Canada asked that the word “especially” be added before “developing countries” in a phrase regarding providing assistance to developing countries for adverse effects of climate policies. Now, to be fair, I have to agree with that.

Things got a ltitle dramatic in the evening. Canada won two of the dubious “Fossil of the Day” Awards presented by the Climate Action Network International. We’ve been racking these up those like crazy lately! There was a special surprise at the show tonight. Toronto’s mayor David Miller arrived to accept the first-place fossil, with Equiterre head Steven Guilbeault accepting the second place. Having David Miller present definitely upped the calibre of the stalwart satirical event of the day.

According to presenters, Canada won the fossil because:

For their 2^nd place win: Canada’s chief negotiator insisted in a briefing this morning that his country’s target of -3% below 1990 are, in fact, based on science. The price quote-in answer to a question, was: “Yes, Canada’s targets are science-based. Absolutely, yes.” Last we checked, the IPCC scientific community called for 25-40% emission reductions below 1990 levels. The Fossil Supreme Command Council can only conclude that he wasn’t referring to climate science at all, but rather the science of mathematics-because -3% is, indeed, a number.

For their 3^rd place win: Canada’s Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, said yesterday that, quote, “it’s in Canada’s interests to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a new agreement.”

Adding these wins to the total, now Canada has first place in the talks. Maye it’s more like last place, when you think of it.

That’s it for now folks. There will be lots more to report tomorrow. Right now I better get to sleep, so I can drag myself out of bed at 6:30 for the next public briefing. Maybe there’ll be something new to report? A tracker can only hope.

Much love from Copenhagen,

Rosa

Tags: briefing, cop15, Michael Martin