How are you at jigsaw puzzles?

Here we go again, back to Bonn, back to another round of UN climate negotiations.

As we begin the first real set of negotiations since the ‘failure’ of Copenhagen there has been much talk over whether the UNFCCC has a place anymore in the world’s response to climate change.

And in consequence whether it is worth us all being here pushing them forwards.

I’ve put A LOT of thought in to this over the last couple of months, after all I invest a lot of time, energy and emotion coming to these negotiations. If they are no longer relevant I could definitely save a bit of my soul.

But through much thinking and soul searching I have come to the conclusion that I do believe we need these negotiations.

However I think before Copenhagen the way we were looking at them was fundamentally wrong.

The way I see it, finding the solution to solving climate change requires us to look at the big picture. We have to respond as a world. That’s what the UNFCCC is supposed to be about.

But the big picture isn’t a beautiful framed photo, in fact at the minute it’s not even a picture.

At the minute the big picture is a jigsaw puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle with many thousands of pieces.

From USA climate policy, to you cutting your emission 10% in 2010. From community groups in Kenya planting trees to the UNFCCC coming up with a global framework for countries making required emission reductions. Every piece of action that any of us can do is a piece of the jigsaw.

Pre Copenhagen we put all the pieces in the box….

At Copenhagen we shook the box….

After Copenhagen we expected to open the box and the jigsaw to have miraculously come together….

We all know that’s not how jigsaws work!

In 2010 is time to start constructing the jigsaw properly.

Anyone who has ever done a jigsaw will know the first thing you do is find the corner pieces.

Then you put some of the edges together, maybe a section of the detail in the left corner, a bit of the sky in the top right. Slowly and surely you build sections of the jigsaw, slowly and surely you see the picture emerge.

It is only at the very end you slot it all together to reveal the whole picture.

Therefore all action to solve climate change does not need to happen here at the UNFCCC. In fact action HAS to happen elsewhere. Countries can go away and work on things, work internally, work together, work in partnerships, in small groups.

We can all go away and work on it, work individually, in our families, in our communities.

As we work on it, as we put these pieces together, parts of the picture will begin to emerge. As the picture begins to emerge then we can then start slotting in the UNFCCC parts and bringing the jigsaw puzzle together.

Putting all the pieces in the box and just shaking may seem tempting. It may seem the best way to get out our frustration, but it will not get us there.

Doing it this way may seem slower, we may not be able to see the picture as it emerges, we may feel we are never going to get there.

But doing it this way means we can get there and we can do it on time. Doing it this way means we can come to the UNFCCC with many pieces of the jigsaw already in place, means we can come here and achieve things.

Doing it this way means it is worthwhile to come here, means it is productive and important. Means we CAN put the jigsaw together, then sit back and look at the big picture before it’s too late.

As another round of UNFCCC negotiations begin, we have to start taking some of these pieces and slotting them into place!

Because the big picture is beautiful. The big picture is the amazing, clean, just future we all want.

I’m looking forward to seeing the picture emerge over the coming months and years. Both at home and here at the UNFCCC.

Thats why I keep coming back.

That’s why we need the UNFCCC.

And just imagine being the one who gets to put the final piece of the jigsaw in place!