Summary of the Current status/situation
The future of the Kyoto Protocol remains a key question at these negotiations as well as the legal discussions in the LCA track and how these are linked. Finance is a critical issue but highlighting the innovative sources of money on the agenda here is proving to be difficult.
Today there were separate meetings between stakeholders and the Chair of the LCA as well as the presidency of COP17 and Christiana Figueres, the secretary of the UNFCCC to discuss the negotiations.
In response to a question on Durban outcomes Christiana Figueres said that she saw “no place for doom and gloom.” And that Parties were coming to Panama ready to work and in the LCA she noted that working groups are either “calling for text, writing text or considering text.” She reminded everyone that before Copenhagen they had no text and the governments were working to avoid this for Durban by working on text well into the evenings that in Durban by working on text well into the evenings. The LCA Chair Dan Reifsnyder echoed the same sentiment stating that Parties avoided tactical delays and were getting down to business. Despite the constructive “spirit” of the Parties the LCA Chair did express concern over the lack of negotiating time between now and through Durban for the 6 groups to complete their work. He indicated that like in Cancun he expected a single decision in the LCA.
Kudos to Christiana for providing positive reinforcement to the Parties at this stage but things took a more sober turn at a stakeholder meeting with Ambassador Mxakato-Diseko on behalf of the incoming COP 17 President. A veteran of the talks raised concerns that the Durban had to deliver tangible items like technology, finance and adaptation and could not afford to be seen as launching an endless climate gabfest on a vague mandate.
This was followed by an impassioned plea to the South African hosts to secure an outcome that helps civil society make the case that the climate regime is worth fighting for, to help “us bring political will back into focus” and to bring home the message that climate change is poverty, is health, Is jobs and is all the things that are the top priorities for people.
What is happening?
The U.S. is starting to play its joker cards and exhibiting unhelpful behaviour at these talks in two key areas – finance and the future of the LCA.
In informal LCA discussions on the legal issues the US said that they more or less didn’t think it was possible to get an agreement on a mandate for discussing a legal regime that they wanted so they could not be bothered to try. What happened to the U.S. spirit of ingenuity?
In related news a group of developing countries were pushed back by the US in their attempts to put the issue of long term finance on the agenda in the Finance group. As we know, fast start finance comes to an end in 2012 and at the end of the day these discussions on the Standing Committee and Green Climate Fund are pointless if there is no money to fill the fund. The U.S. prefers to keep this discussion in the closed doors of the G20 apparently. Almost two years after CoP 15 we still have no agreed sources on long term finance, the U.S. needs to make good on its part of the pledge by developed countries to scale up finance to $100 billion/year by 2020.
Outside these negotiations it has surfaced that the US State Department has a bias towards carbon polluting pipelines-namely, the Keystone XL, which is a 1,700-mile fuse to the largest Carbon bomb on the planet, the Alberta tar sands. The State Department is currently conducting a review for the pipeline, but has been receiving significant counsel from the pipeline company’s own lobbyists.
Message for the day
Exploiting the tar sands is a dangerous step in the wrong direction, and one that President Obama will decide upon before the year is out. This troubling relationship obscures the fact that saying no to Keystone XL is a positive step for the US to demonstrate seriousness in face of the climate crisis.
The US needs to stop its obstructive strategy and shut up and let those who want to move forward do so – one day they will catch up – but in the meantime they should not be dragging everyone down with them.
For these reasons the US was awarded today’s fossil of the day http://www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day.
What you can do today?
Petition asking Australian government to act works towards a global deal on climate change and supporting innovative sources of financing to assist developing countries adapt to climate change. http://www.oxfam.org.au/act/take-action/climate-change/2008-08-petition
Other materials:
7 reasons why we need a robust and comprehensive climate agreement:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/7-reasons-we-need-to-keep_b_991654.html
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