Jam Packed Day 10
Posted on 09. Dec, 2010 by joannadafoe in Canada
A lot has happened in Cancun in the past 48 hours so I will try to recap some essentials.
Back home in Canada, Conservative MP Michael Chong speaks out on the need for swift action on climate change. Seem banal? Yes, sort of… but this video is also making waves here in Cancun because it communicates the dire need for action in a larger party context that does not share the same vision.
Negotiations carry on in full intensity. The corridors are packed with negotiators and high level leaders, and I have developed a knack for identifying who to speak with.
At this point in the game, the text is getting dwindled down into clear political trade-offs that ministers use for final negotiations. There are both strong and weak options on the table, so we are still not sure if the outcome will be strong.
In the KP track, the second commitment period statements from Japan (tacitly Canada) has turned into a sore spot of the meetings. Mr. Saint-Jacques made an interesting statement at our morning NGO meeting that would support a second commitment period for Canada. He said that the challenge is to help developing countries transition as much as possible to a low carbon economy. This policy goal for Canada would translate to us sending clear political and economic signals to the Global South, by making the transition first ourselves.
As I write this post there is a lot of progress and corridor bilaterals over the issue of bunker fuels related to bunker finance. Bunker fuels are any kind of fuel oil use to power ships. Here is the situation: the main bunker governance bodies (international civil aviation and international maritime organization) have not regulated greenhouse gases. Why? Here it is again… the principle of common but different responsibility (that pesky principle of fairness. If equity wasn’t enough on mitigation..). I had a great chat with a policy analyst at WWF who explained the options to me. By Friday, they are hoping to have ministers agree on text in the LCA track (guess what - the current options for agreement are completely blank, they were erased because of dispute) to reconcile conflicting principles. Some options for agreement would be to use a cap and trade system for bunker fuel finance or to generate revenues. The proposed text for bunker fuels could raise more than $10 billion dollars by taxing a global harm and distributing the costs differentially according to a country’s capacity. The money raised will then go back towards financing the UNFCCC.
Tomorrow morning I’m off to a meeting with Mr. Saint Jacques at 8:00 am, and then off to do a session with CBC… more to come!
Negotiator Tracker - Joanna Dafoe
Joanna is an advocate for climate leadership on both the UN and community level. She attended the Montreal, Bali, and Copenhagen climate meetings with the Canadian Youth Delegation. Outside the UNFCCC, Joanna has been active in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development where she attended the 16th and 17th sessions as a youth representative. Currently living in Sweden on exchange, she calls Edmonton and Toronto her home. read more»
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