After a fairly drama-free first week of the climate talks in Bonn, Saturday marked a change in tone. In addition to developments in the effort to eliminate loopholes from LULUCF in the Kyoto negotiations track, the US also made headlines (in the conference center, anyway).
The United States was awarded the first “Fossil of the day” award on Saturday evening. Here’s the press release:
FOSSIL OF THE DAY AWARDS
Bonn, Germany, June 5, 2010The Climate Action Network (CAN), a coalition of over 500 NGOs worldwide, gives out ‘Fossil of The Day’ awards to the countries who perform the worst during the past day’s negotiations at the UN climate change conference.
The award given out June 5, 2010 in Bonn, Germany was:
The United States of America was awarded First Place. The U.S. earns the Fossil of the Day for blocking the common space discussion on mitigation in the Ad Hoc Working Group for Long-term Cooperative Action yesterday. Failing to pass a strong climate and energy bill is keeping them from participating in cross-cutting discussions, like the one AOSIS proposed, to build a post-2012 agreement to reduce global warming emissions.
About the fossils:
The Fossil of the day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, also in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum.
During United Nations climate change negotiations (unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), a worldwide network of over 500 non-governmental organizations, vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.
www.climatenetwork.org
At the same time we were getting shamed in Bonn for our action (and inaction), the US Department of State sent out a statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for World Environment Day, which begins with:
“The United States is proud to join with the international community to mark June 5 as World Environment Day, as we have since 1973…” (read the whole thing)
Oh, the irony.
While we wrestle with the worst oil spill in US history back home, our lack of domestic clean energy policy is also stifling our ability to engage in climate and energy solutions internationally. Happy World Environment Day.
Update: Here’s video of the award’s ceremony via One Climate:
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http://coolaner.nu/2010/06/05/usa-blev-dagens-fossil/ COOLA NER » USA blev dagens fossil
About the author
Joshua Wiese is Adopt a Negotiator’s Project Director. He is based in San Francisco, where he spends most of his time thinking about how to use technology to make the world a better place.
