It might hurt, but it helps

Posted on 03. Oct, 2010 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany

It’s only been my second full day here in China and I feel have already experienced much more than in all the other cities the UNFCCC meetings have taken place at so far. You can see the result of my “massage experiment” in the picture: It’s called cupping, is awfully painful, doesn’t look good, but according to traditional Chinese Medicine, it helps your blood pressure and is really healthy.

In that regard, this simple example is a good metaphor for what is expecting us at the upcoming Climate Change Conference here in Tianjin and in Cancun at COP16 in December this year: It might feel like yet another painful sessions of sitting, discussing and waiting for an outcome that has so far been almost invisible, if at all existant.

But although Copenhagen still remains to be one of the biggest failures in our shared memory of Climate Change negotiations making it unimaginable that this governmental lack of ambition might change during the upcoming months, the dynamics of how some governments, businesses and most impotantly the civil society deal with the climate crisis is still unfolding and changing every single day.

Just today, we had our first “CAN Strategy Meeting” and as CAN stands for “Climate Action Network” and is the by far most important umbrella organisation for most NGOs with a Climate Change focus, one would expect it to be just another boring prep-meeting for policy gurus that are talking mostly about LULUCF, REDD and all those other acronyms out there.

But, in fact, the CAN meeting over time developed to be an important psychological reboot for all of those that have wrapped their minds around the UN logic a bit too often. Too often, I’d say, to remain positive about the good stuff that is happening out there, outside the big Conference & Convention Centers. CAN today used some “green dots” made of tape to let members vote on what they think will influence the Cancun outcome the most. Most of us gave their dots for things like “The US government doesn’t pass any legislation on Climate Change” or “Developed Countries don’t agree on the 40% emission reduction target” as being the most influential for the Cancun outcome.

Surprisingly, there was not a single vote for “Businesses changing their mind” and only a view for “Grassroots movements” as compared to all those points related to the perspective based on national goverments and international structures like the UN.

However, as a mere thousand delegates and observers keep talking away the weeks, months and years in these huge convention centers all over the world and are actually making some minor progress, it is Millions of people out there that are directly or indirectly affected by Climate Change and hundreds of thousands these days that are preparing for the 10th of October and get ready for the huge “Work Party” that the 10:10 Campaign and 350.org, among others, are promoting, let alone the many protests against Nuclear Power Plants on the streets of Germany that show people across generations do still care about what is happening to their environment.

This week, my job as a tracker will certainly include - again - a lot of acronyms, a lot of numbers and a lot of broken promises by delegations that often have less power than any of us can have in his or her personal life.

But however frustrating these series of UN talks may have been and still be: They remain being an imporant catalyst. Maybe, it’s important that they are hurting. At least, this is forcing the rest of us to join forces and act….

… and in case you haven’t done so yet, please engage in any of the planned events for 10/10/10 in Germany: http://www.1010global.org/de

or ask your Politician in your area what he is thinking about the German Governments new “Energy Concept” and what he is planning to do in support of renewable energy sources here: www.100prozentzukunft.de

Tags: Germany, Tianjin