In 24 hours?
Posted on 10. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom
Early morning coffee here in Cancun, the last day of cop16. Plenary is already delayed by an hour, we still have no new LCA text to work with. That means the ministers and negotiators who last night at 11pm were tasked to go away into small groups and work on different elements may still be working, still trying to reach some form of compromise.
With no negotiations to follow I sit writing this outside the Moon Palace, on the terrace looking down over the Caribbean. I stare at the brilliant blue sea, I hear the sound of the waves and I wonder where we will be in 24 hours time. In 24 hours time cop16 will (hopefully) be over, in 24 hours time I will be getting ready to spend 2 months travelling in Mexico, in 24 hours time I will have all the time in the world to spend in the crystal waters that today sit so temptingly just beyond the fence.
But in 24 hours time will we have taken that so desperately needed step towards a global agreement on climate change?
The answer, even with just 24 hours to go, is impossible to call.
Things are not looking good. The unfccc has suddenly got even more complicated than it already was. We now have texts all over the place. Informal texts, chairs texts, parties texts quite frankly we’re drowning in texts and I’m struggling to keep up. Today is the day when ministers can make cop decisions on these texts, but will they note them, decide on them, reach consensus, what do these terms even mean, communicating this is pretty difficult when it is taking all your mental power just to understand it.
What I do know is that last night 5 pairs of countries were sent away to continue working on texts that compromise 5 elements that we could get somewhere on here, or that needed to be sorted before we can move on. REDD (forests), tech transfer, adaptation, finance and the future of the KP. When they reported back at stocktaking last night the first 4 were finding some points of compromise though none were going great. The final one, the future of the KP which the UK and Brazil were working on did not even report back, they needed more time. The future of the KP has been the pivotal issue here since Japan came out on the 1st day and stated they would not join a second commitment period, now on the last day it seems we are no closer to finding a way forward. But when there’s still time there is still hope, and we must wait to see what Brazil and the UK come back to the table with.
And as we wait for that to happen I continue to stare at the sea and realise, that whatever happens here, tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow things will be different.
And yet tomorrow things will also be the same. Because tomorrow whatever happens here over the next 24 hours, we must continue to believe in the seemingly impossible. Continue to fight for the future that when you’re sat at the unfccc seems so far away. But that when you stare at the sea and see our beautiful world, when you sit and talk with others who see it too, you realise is there to reach out and grab.
And if the politicians here at the unfccc won’t grab it, then we shall just have to grab it for them.
Negotiator Tracker - Anna Collins
Anna Collins Born and bred in Warrington in the *sunny* North of England, Anna was brought up by parents with a deep sense of justice and taught to always fight for what she believed is right. "I guess you could say it was in the blood, my gran went to Greenham Common in the 80s"... read more»
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