Day 4 Update (and comic relief)

Posted on 02. Dec, 2010 by joannadafoe in Canada

We are into day 4 of the negotiations, which means there are now only 3 negotiating days left before the high-level segment begins. In our meeting with Executive Secretary Christiania Figueres she broke into tears when we asked her what gives her hope in these negotiations. Her answer was that young people give her hope. Young people give her hope because it is why she does her job as Executive Secretary. Instead of working for acronyms and technicality, she does her work because the Earth is borrowed by her generation to be inherited by the future. She specifically assigned to me as the Canadian tracker with the homework of improving Canada’s position on mitigation reduction in the climate negotiations (tall order!).

The list of the Canadian Delegation is now available on the UNFCCC website so you can see for yourself who is on the Delegation team. Later on today I’d like to go through this list and identify some of important negotiators who may be helping to shape Canada’s negotiating position.

In three hours I will have an interview with Ambassador Saint-Jacques. I will ask our lead negotiator questions on the negotiating status and clarification on the difference between Canada and Japan’s position on the Kyoto Protocol.

In the NGO briefing with Ambassador Saint-Jacques yesterday, I asked the finance question submitted by Andrew Cuddy. Here is what the Ambassador generally replied with notes courtesy of Maggie Knight.

Mr. Saint-Jacques disputes premise of the question because, in his, the funding is new and additional. His idea is to disperse money quickly; have to seek all kinds of approvals in government in order to determine the nature of financing. It is true that Canada is providing money at loans. Mr. Saing-Jacques met with the World Bank and who said Canada’s financing announcement will help a great deal in terms of clean energy. Canada will help companies to manage risk for those companies that are interested in clean energy projects but will not invest if too risking. Canada’s financing will create an important multiplier effect when companies invest, this is very important. Looking to the future, he hopes Canada can get a better balance of adaptation and mitigation. Chose multilateral process and World Bank for speed. Current bilateral with Haiti (receiving $5 million), Ethiopia, Vietnam. Helped Grenada organize AOSIS. This is significant especially since Grenada and Haiti did not endorse the Copenhagen Accord.

Last but not least, this is the exact stage in the negotiation day for personal tipping points, sleep deprivation, and general UNFCCC crank. Everyone knows the best antidote for UNFCCC creank is comic relief so here is a great comic on the perverse logic of the “technology breakthrough” myth that often defines the positions of major polluting states.

Tags: Canada, comedy, featured, Saint Jacques