We Have to Act in Cancun

Posted on 30. Nov, 2010 by astark in U.S.A.

Here at the UNFCCC negotiations, we sometimes get so bogged down in wonky discussions that we forget the big picture.

At the COP-16 meeting in Cancun from November 29-December 10, the international community will try to agree on several pieces of the efforts that we need to make to tackle climate change. This basket of decisions, often referred to here as a “balanced package,” constitutes some of the lower-hanging fruit in negotiations, items that are considered to be easier to find agreement on than a binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions reductions would require. A legally binding outcome was expected in Copenhagen last year, and there was a great deal of hype and high expectations that by the end of that meeting, when countries were unable to agree on the text for a legally binding treaty, disappointment about the lack of action and mistrust amongst parties darkened the atmosphere of talks. A set of agreements here in Cancun is seen as an important trust-building measure, both amongst parties and for the rest of the world that the UNFCCC process can deliver.

Probably the most important issue under discussion here revolves around providing finance for the poorest and most vulnerable countries to adapt to the effects of climate change and build up a sustainable development path that relies on alternative sources of energy. In Cancun, delegates hope to agree on the basic architecture of a climate fund, including how the fund will be governed and a process moving forward for how the details of this fund will be worked out. Negotiators will also discus the financial commitments made by developed countries under the Copenhagen Accord, including $30 billion from 2010 to 2012 and $100 billion per year by 2020 from private and “innovative sources” of finance as well as public sources.

The parties of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement signed in 1997 by most countries but still not ratified by the United States, will also discuss a second commitment period, since this agreement expires in 2012. A separate negotiating track will discuss mitigation agreements on limiting emissions for countries like the United States that are not part of the Kyoto Protocol and therefore would not be part of a second commitment period of this agreement.

Negotiators will try to agree on a mechanism for developed countries to transfer clean energy technologies to developing countries, an issue referred to as technology transfer. They will confer on the issue of adaptation, and creating an international body to advise a new climate fund on how finances should be spent as well as to build adaptation capacities in developing countries. And they will discuss the rules for a regime to prevent deforestation in developing countries (called REDD), since forests serve as an important carbon sink.

There are so many nitty-gritty details to discuss here, that NGO observers as well as negotiators remain steeped in the complex vocabulary and acronyms of the negotiations, often rightly so since these tiny details are essential for a successful agreement. But the unique vocabulary of the UNFCCC process also poses a distinct danger that allows all of us gathered here, parties and NGO observers alike, on what is really at stake. In the opening plenary this morning, Mexican President Felipe Calderon zeroed in on the key issue, saying, “we are still learning how to come to agreement as a species and a planet… our relationship with nature is reaching a critical point.” The science shows that the planet is quickly approaching a point at which human actions will no longer matter, and our climate will be caught in a vicious feedback loop of warming that leads to massive natural disasters, food insecurity, migration and an earth as we know it that is completely altered.

Even as we downgrade our expectations for the outcome of these COP meetings, the need for decisive international action increases exponentially. Our actions here will be looked on by people around the world and by future generations as decisive in either taking the actions that saved our planet or failing to do so. Our job here is to make sure that the negotiators don’t lose sight of the imperative to act and the direct repercussions of their actions on our planet and our futures.

This afternoon, the head of the U.S. delegation Jonathan Pershing stated in a press briefing that “a balanced package is within our grasp.” Let’s hope that every delegation focuses not only on achieving a so-called balanced package here in Cancun, but also a better future.

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