Time to change? (or… Back to the UN part 2)
Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom
Time is a funny thing isn’t it. Loads of it can pass and it can feel like no time at all. But just a few weeks ago can feel like years.
It doesn’t seem a minute since we were last in Bonn (in June 2009), and yet looking back on what has happened since then it also feels like a lifetime!
Today we returned to the hotel where the negotiations happen here. It was such a feeling of Déjà vu. In fact the whole process of coming back to Bonn has been one big Déjà vu (and I’m not the only one who thinks so, Andrea stole my blog title!)
Yesterday I arrived in Bonn and saw the team for the first time since Copenhagen. This morning we got accredited, we went to the policy meeting and now here I am sat writing a blog about what the UN needs to do to save the world…
Same town, same trams, same shops, same bars.
Same UN building, same fountain, same terrible expensive coffee, same tired hallways, same lobby where we all sit to work, same fight for the plug sockets …
Have I travelled back in time?
Did the last year not happen?
No of course it did! And in fact as much as I am feeling so many feelings of Déjà vu many things have changed.
Me for one! Last time we were here I was new, fresh faced, optimistic and knew no one. Today this is all second nature, I’m a hardened old timer with a great and close team around me (though we’re missing our absent trackers!) and I can’t get very far without bumping into someone I know.
And as I said in my last blog, in 2009 the movement grew beyond all recognition.
But the challenges we face have changed to.
Within the UNFCCC we are now facing a whole new set of challenges.
We came out of Copenhagen with so much less than we ever even expected. Not only did we come out of it with an accord that means nothing, we also came out of it with relationships between many of the countries at an all time low. When Obama took a choice set of countries into a back room to try and save face in Copenhagen he left everyone else feeling..well a bit miffed. And since the Copenhagen accord was not adopted by the UNFCCC merely ‘noted’ we can’t move forward with it within the UNFCCC process as it is either.
To rebuild trust and to work out how on earth the UNFCCC moves forward from here. These are the two main challenges we now face.
These are the reasons we are back here in Bonn for 3 short days.
3 days…
That’s not a lot of time!
With climate change time is rarely on our side!
But time is the one biggest things that perhaps has changed from last year.
Last year Copenhagen loomed like a piano about to fall off a cliff above us. Everything was about getting there and getting things done. Now with Copenhagen behind us for better of for worse that pressure is off.
Of course we still don’t have all the time in the world! We all know that we are at a tipping point of civilisation and that climate change will not wait for any of us (especially not the UN).
So over the next few days countries will meet to talk, rebuild relationships and work out what can and can’t happen within the UNFCCC.
Process process process
Boring…But important.
And the main reason we are all back here in Bonn.
And the reason we all still need to care.
With the pressure off and the UNFCCC in disarray many important decisions surrounding our response to climate change are suddenly being discussed outside the process. Though we do not have all the time in the world, though the UN moves slowly, this is not necessarily a good thing.
Because it is only at the UN that all countries have a right to have a say. Take anything out of this process and suddenly some people aren’t getting invited to the table.
That’s what we saw happen at Copenhagen, and that’s what we can’t let happen again.
As the UNFCCC meets and thrashes out the way forward the most important thing to remember is that, however we do this, whatever happens, everyone deserves a seat at the table.
To rebuild trust we need to be transparent, fair and inclusive.
And that takes time.
The quote goes…”If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.”
We don’t have all the time in the world and yet we need to go far!
So perhaps this is the greatest challenge
To act quickly, but to act together.
How…I don’t know? As I’ve said in the past if I had the answer to that I’d be going for Yvo’s job! But this weekend we need to start trying.
We need to get this process back on track and we need to start trusting each other so we can work together as one world. And we need to start doing it now.
Because last year did happen! We are now one year closer to reaching a tipping point, we can’t afford to repeat our mistakes.
But last year was not wasted, last year was an experience that changed us all. It’s time to harness that change and start acting on it.
The Adopter - Anna Collins
Anna Collins Born and bred in Warrington in the *sunny* North of England, Anna was brought up by parents with a deep sense of justice and taught to always fight for what she believed is right. "I guess you could say it was in the blood, my gran went to Greenham Common in the 80s"... read more»
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Jan Thompson (otherwise known to Anna simply as Jan!) is the lead climate change negotiator for the United Kingdom. The UK has a large negotiating team who each cover different sections of the negotiations, however Jan takes the lead and brings everything together. read more»