Where we’re at. Giving the right direction?

The intersessional in Bangkok 3-8 April 2011 was the first time governments convened after the Cancun climate talks for some pre-sessional workshops and negotiating under the tracks of the Kyoto ( govts agreed to kyoto ) and the Long Term Track ( to include the US ).

Workshops

As far as the week goes, the workshops before the negotiations proved to be a success as they gave a general outlay of where we are at and how much we have done to combat climate change and actually became a ground for frank discussion. Although how they will feed into the negotiations is still not that clear. Hopefully it will be in the form of a written report. More frequent workshops like this were encouraged to be held.

Long Term Track (LCA)

Negotiations kicked off yesterday, with the usual fight over agenda. There are 2 opinions , one led by the developed world which would like to lock down the Cancun agreements as a proposed work plan on the road to Durban and the other led by developing countries who want basically the agenda to be more based on the Bali road map which is more comprehensive and balanced and adds more things ( in particular the contentious issue of the legal architecture of the outcome) to the Cancun agreements as an agenda to drill out a work plan for the road to Durban. The developing countries believe to first adopt agenda ( found here ) and bring in the hard unanswered questions on legal form and commitments back into the debate. They also are trying to ensure the lack of direct involvement of chair or presidency to give direction and dictate outcomes. This is working on tangible “work plan” and comprehensiveness.

The European Union and the US don’t want this type of agenda, they feel the “work plan” limits capacities of chairs and presidency and hence want to focus on specificity ie Cancun in agenda. The EU agenda can be found here

What the NGO’s say?

False dichomtomy between 2. One or the other, should do both. CAN agenda

The Long term track of negotiations reconvened at 5 30 pm today, with the chair’s new proposed agenda. To which both the developed and the developing countries had a quick reply with their own versions. They have currently broken out into a contact group for drafting a merged agenda. So its happening. After hours of bilaterals amongst countries and meetings with the chair.
The uncomfortable work is finally being done.

Its NOT hit a deadlock.
The agenda is the key to the direction of where we are led.
We ARE on the right direction.
We HAVE started asking the RIGHT questions. The Questions that make governments uncomfortable. ( will you commit to second Kyoto, or will you join Kyoto or when will you put your targets in ).

Remember, its a fight, but its WORTH fighting for.
This is part of the larger progress we are seeing.

Kyoto Track

As far as progress on the Kyoto protocol track is concerned, agenda has been adopted to talk in a contact group for clarity on the continuation of Kyoto and the commitments and strong political action by countries. Yesterday there were suggestions by Island Nations to have these actions enlisted and drafted as a part of a document. Strong interventions called for countries who wanted countries unable to commit to leave the room. Main impasse lies between whether governments should consider rules or commitments first.

The European Union said that preconditions for kp2 are rules and pledges transformed into local policies, so that it becomes locally binding. The Kp agenda also reflected looking at June Ministerial meeting to ensure political ambition..

Am adjoining the revised questions for Kyoto and Ideas by parties in the photos.

HIGHLIGHTS and ACTIONS

Today, Keep Cool – Stop Warming!” was the slogan on our t-shirts, to call on negotiators to get their act together and agree an agenda. Dan Reifsnyder from the US, the Chair of the LCA negotiations and therefore charged with facilitating a process towards finding that agenda, also got ice cream, and altogether we handed out a few hundred cones and engaged dozens of negotiators in short conversations. The action was driven by our friends from the Nepali youth delegation. A selection of photos can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?hlybs1boado7l

On the 4th of April Local A-FAB (Coalition on ASEAN for a Fair, Ambitious and Binding Global Climate Deal) activists wore winter jackets, rain gear and beach wear to portray the on-going climate chaos. Above their heads they held signs symbolizing climate extremes from “record heat” to “extreme rain”, swopping these quickly to show how the climate is changing rapidly and makes it hard to adapt. A young man in beach wear suddenly found himself facing “extreme cold”, while a woman with a coat and gloves was sweating due to a sudden “record heat”. The activists were met by UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christina Figueres, who received A-FAB’s demands for an ambitious global climate deal from world governments on behalf of the region’s most vulnerable and least prepared populations. Photos and video are here http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/multimedia/photo/ASEAN-must-demonstrate-leadership-in-UN-climate-negotiations/ and more here http://202.44.55.51/newmedia_green/unfccc-afab/pic.zip

Youth made an intervention in the opening Kyoto Protocol plenary.

The bicycle protest unfolding outside the UNESCAP building on 3rd April a helped set the first day of the talks in motion. In the morning, the Thai Cycling Club rallied around a hundred cyclists of all ages in front of the negotiating venue. In the afternoon, the Thai Cycling for Health Association kept the show moving with a bicycle ride across the city, complete with rickshaws and cycles from Bangkok’s new bike share program. The ride culminated in another rally at the UN building to help kick off a new 350.org initiative called “Moving Planet” (official launch later this week). Complete set of photos is now at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/