Sitting, waiting, wishing
Posted on 11. Apr, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom
So much time to wait I had time to get a sketchpad out, looking down over an empty plenary...
Today has been a lot of sitting around and a lot of waiting. As I write this we have just heard that the plenaries have all been delayed again. We were supposed to start at 11am…then 1pm…then 3pm…now who knows! But they have also announced that the furniture in the hotel is being dismantled at 6pm…so either they will all be continuing negotiations sitting on the floor…or things are going to be rather rushed!
All these delays does not means things aren’t happening, to the contrary it means lots is going on behind the scenes (the delays are because they are all in other meetings trying to agree things). But it does mean that we in civil society have no idea what is going on.
All we can do is sit, wait and wish.
Wish that something would change, that this process would start moving. Wish that they would just sort it out, so we can all go home feeling that coming here at least achieved something!
Wish that it didn’t cost 2.5 euros for a brew here!
But while we wait for any news and drink our extortionately priced cups of tea, there are a couple of things that have been discussed this weekend, in and around the negotiations, that are interesting and worth a mention.
First is THE GIGATONNE GAP! This is a new exciting phrase (especially if every time you say it you use a stupid voice…) that has been being thrown around all weekend. Basically the gigatonne gap, is the gap between what we all say we’re going to do in terms of emission cuts and the level we have said we will keep temperature rise under (currently 2 degrees). It’s not new news that these two figures don’t add up and that there are many many loopholes pushing the numbers even further apart, but now we are all drawing attention to it and calling it the gigatonne gap.
The explicit focus on it will hopefully push countries towards more ambition and not dressing up inadequate targets and trying to pass them as ambitious, and will highlight where there are glaring loopholes so no one can try and cover them up. Hopefully by the next time we meet we will have research and official papers into this issue which will push the issue further and maybe lead to some answers…
The second big talking point this weekend has been civil society participation at Cancun, where this years COP will be held in December. This has been a very hot topic of conversation over the last few days and one I will no doubt return to over the year. But the crux of the issue is, after the debacle of Copenhagen, things are not looking great for civil society access and an open and transparent COP 16 in Mexico in December.
When the youth met with the Mexican’s we made the point that as much as we thought spending a week locked out of the negotiations in Cancun would be more fun than in Copenhagen (me and Andrea are already scouting out beaches…) it was simply unacceptable for this to happen. They made noises telling us this would not be the case, but there are still many concerns that need to be addressed.
Both these things will continue to be hot topics over the course of the year. But much like the negotiations today we will not get clear answers, or even more info, for some time yet.
Which leaves us back in the UN, sitting, waiting and wishing.
And at the moment I’m wishing we were having this meeting in Cancun too, so at least we could hit the beach while we wait for them to start!
