Rumors, Chatters and huge Frustrations

Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany | View Comments

I know that you guys out there are probably waiting for me to blog and give you some more insight on what is happening over here. Well, I honestly do not quite know where to begin. This day is the last official day of negotiations here in Copenhagen, the whole civil society is watching, but locked out of the Bella Center. There have been a couple of nice sounding speeches by heads of states - most of them neither surprising, nor bringing new numbers or targets to the table.

Above all of them: Obama and Merkel. I know about both that they actually do care about their “Climate Reputation” and came here to be the game changers in the last hours of these negotiations. Merkels speech was beautifully framed with good rhetorics, but the numbers she announced were nowhere near of what we expect and need them to be: She still talked about a mere 25% emission reduction targets as a globally needed target for industrialised countries, she did not even mention the issue of additionality (new and additional money) and it became clear once more that those conditional 30% that were put out there somehow by the EU are still conditional and this card has yet to be played. Today, Obama again talked about the US reduction goals of 17% by 2020 - and simply ignored the fact that this is based on the emission in the year 2005, not 1990. It breaks down to a mere 4% target on the basis of 1990 - the baseyear that every other nation uses (except of a few, for e.g. Australia).

I am exhausted and disappointed. This morning, I had another skype streaming with the ARD, the German TV - and told them in complete honesty - how speechless I was: ” If this wasnt a skype call with German TV, I would say nothing at all. ”

However, there is a lot to say and a lot of details and leaders here to be mentioned, blamed and shamed for what we are experiencing. This indeed seems to be a big show, a huge failure - and there are certain people that need to be blamed for it. Just in these minutes, I have heard that Angela Merkel herself is indeed blocking the talks within the EU as she does not want to move to a 30% goal. On the other hand, the UNFCCC has asked negotiators to stay a bit longer - till Sunday at least.

It is exactly as Nicole Wilke had told me before: About 300 people know whats going on - the other 20.000 out here spread rumors. And I am one of them.

Wenn nichts mehr geht

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany | View Comments

Das Ende naht. Das Ende von sechs Monaten Durchhalteparolen, Strategietreffen, Kampagnen, mutigen, heiteren, traurigen und erfolgreichen Phasen des Trackerdaseins. Es ist zwei Uhr nachts und ich sitze noch immer im Bella Centre, dem Konferenzzentrum des COP15 in Kopenhagen.

Heute war wieder einer dieser Tage, an denen meine Stimmung nicht in Worte zu fassen, ja, die Frage nach dem “Und wie läuft’s?” eigentlich nicht zu beantworten war. Was soll ich schon sagen? Und was spielt es noch für eine Rolle? Für mich persönlich hat die Reise als Tracker viel gebracht, das ist wohl klar. Auch heute wieder: Ein schönes Interview mit Hermann Ott von den Grünen, ein paar interessante Gespräche am Rande, ein bißchen Planung für Aktionen in Deutschland und eine fast nächtliche Teilnahme beim COP - Meeting, das heute sage und schreibe bis auf 21:30 Uhr verschoben wurde.

Nach einem privaten Skype Call dann zum Abschied noch eine Portion Sitzstreick im Flur und: Fertig ist der Tracker-Tag. Doch das, was hier so romantisch und nach jugendlich-naivem Aktivismus klingen mag, ist alles andere als Anlass zum Spaßen. In den Inhalten meiner heutigen Gespräche verbag sich mal wieder das, was mich hier tagtäglich zum Grübeln bringt. Ilka von der deutschen Delegation sagte mir übrigens gegen 21 Uhr dann unser Gespräch endgültig ab… schlafen hätte man endlich können, so Ilka, wenn man doch nur gewusst hätte, dass heute wieder viele Stunden nur mit Warten verbracht würden….

So geht es auch mir. Und vielen anderen hier. Jan von Oxfam sitzt zu dieser Minute noch immer im Bella Centre und spekuliert darauf, dass er morgen noch drin sein darf (denn auch er hat kein Badge für morgen), wenn er einfach sitzen bleibt, die Nacht hier verbringt und dann morgen auf einem der Sofas hier wieder erwacht. Vielleicht, so die klitzekleine Chance, schmeißt ihn tatsächlich keiner raus. Doch uns ist klar: Die Security hat uns alle im Computer gespeichert, beim Verlassen des Gebäudes wird noch einmal ausgecheckt. So einfach ist das hier nicht. Auch der Sitzstreik der Jugendlichen wird mit gemischten Gefühlen betrachtet. Miliband, der britische Außen- und offenbar auch Umweltminister (oder zumindest verkauft er sich wohl auch als solchen) kam gerade noch vorbei und hielt ein Pläuschchen mit Anna, unserer britischen Trackerin. Auf der anderen Seite wartet hingegen leicht angespannt David, der Direktor von CAN International.

Er hat die ganze Zeit für den Zugang weniger CAN Vertreter (sprich von CAN Mitgliedsorganisationen) gekämpft…seine wohl berechtigte Sorge: Wenn nun Jugendliche einiger Mitgliedsorganisationen hier protestieren und den Sicherheitsleuten Widerstand leisten, werden auch diese wenigen morgen nicht mehr reingelassen…

So weit so gut, doch damit sind wir noch immer nicht beim eigentlichen inhaltlichen Teil des heutigen Verhandlungstages. Aber genau das vermittelt Euch einen Eindruck, wie man viel erzählen kann, ohne eigentlich etwas auszusagen. Und genau das passierte auch heute wieder in den Sitzungen. Während im großen Plenarsaal sämtliche Staatschefs rhetorisch gepfeilte Reden von sich gaben, wurde die COP (Conference of the Parties) erneut verschoben - dann wieder eröffnet um 21:30 Uhr, nur um festzustellen, dass keiner mit dem Text zufrieden ist, der auf dem Tisch liegt und der dänische Premier nun doch nochmals in private Konsultationen gehen muss.

“He is actually consulting on how to consult and with whom to consult on how to proceed”, so in etwa die Aussage der Madame Chair, … Mauritius hingegen bat ernsthaft um Schlaf und viele schlossen sich an.

Auf dem Weg nach draußen dann traf ich, einsam und allein auf dem Flur ausgerechnet den Mann, der noch letzte Nacht erneut viele Klammern und Veränderungen in den Verhandlungstext einzufügen wusste. Jene Klammern, die heute für die vielen Verzögerungen (unter anderem) gesorgt haben, weil wieder nichts klar und alles zweideutig war: Jonathan Pershing, der Chef-Unterhändler der USA. Doch auch er ist offenbar nur ein Mensch mit dem Bedürfnis nach Schlaf. So drehte er sich beim Hören meiner Schritte um und warf mir ein freundliches Lächeln zu. “Good night buddy.”

Vielleicht sind einige unserer von Menschen gemachten Differenzen ja doch zu überbrücken, wenn wir uns darauf zurück besinnen. Auf die uns allen gemeinsamen Bedürfnisse.

In dieser Sekunde kommt die Security… und schmeisst mich raus..genauso wie alle anderen Sitzstreiker… Bilder gibts morgen bei Flickr, wenn ich sie hochgeladen hab

COP: Closing out People.

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Ole Seidenberg in Germany | View Comments

It’s only three days left until Cop15 ends - and the closer we get to this end, the more I feel that this becomes an exclusive process. Although I must admit that I don’t really know what all those thousands of civil society represantatives do here all day long (some admittetly seem to be in consultations with their coffee all the time), restricting the participation of civil society at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit is neither a good sign for the ongoing negotiations. After waiting a mere 40 minutes in the queue outside this morning (rather than those 7 hours that some people waited yesterday), I got into the Bella Center today, due to the “Secondary Badge” that I own. But as I have heard tonight, there were another couple of thousands NGO-represantatives that wanted to get in - and did not get in after eight (!!) hours of waiting in the cold.

“This is a huge priviledge”, our coordinator Josh told us - only 30% of those accredited with any NGO got in today, but almost all the trackers. It certainly means a lot to us. However, it is not really less disappointing on the inside of this building, where we often need a third badge to actually access the meetings (the usually open Plenarys that is), but still cannot access the closed and informal meetings.

This process is getting more and more intransparent. Not only because of closing down the meetings, but due to the whole dynamics that are unfolding during these days. Apparently, it’s even intransparent to those that are really participating: This morning, I met Ilka Wagner on the hallway, the German Delegate responsible for the issue of “technology transfer”. We are trying to meet since last week, but haven’t managed so far. She was - once more - running from one room to the other.. no chance to get hold of her. This time, she told me, what had happened: They were re-starting to negotiate serveral texts in parallel. “I don’t know how this can actually work”, she said, looking frustrated and tired.

People around the world have demanded that heads of state take personal responsibility for averting catastrophic climate change. They have demanded that leaders agree on a legally binding treaty that is both fair and ambitious. Many of them might not actually know what this is about. They might not have any idea about the dynamics of this process and the problems that are bound to it. But what strikes me most is that even those that should have an idea at this stage of the negotiations, seem to have no clue where this is heading to.

This afternoon, the European Youth had a meeting with a couple of European Environmental ministers, among them those from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Finland. All of them were asked once more, when exactly they were planning to raise their emission reduction targets to 30% within the EU and, more importantly, whether they thought they would live up to their promise to do the best for upcoming generations.

It was disappointing. They were nice and cooperating, but none of them - as expected - said anything surprising. Of course, the EU wants to move to the 30% target, but it remains conditional. Conditional. Conditional with only three days of negotiations ahead. How is this supposed to work out, I ask? How are we supposed to trust our leaders in an environment, where we are locked out and all we here from them from day to day is a reiteration of their well-known statements? Lock-out on one side, a Dead-Lock on the other?

Later this afternoon, the high-level segment (the meeting of ministers and later heads of states this week) was welcomed by a group of young, blonde, Danish singers. It was once more a pretty ceremony. Even Prince Charles was there, speaking much longer than he was supposed to…all this ceremonial stuff fit quite well in the overall “marketing strategy” of this COP - and even Nicole Wilke (in our interview here) told me: This looks like an exhibition or a fair, but not like a conference where Heads of States discuss the future of our very survival. Frankly: Has any pretty ceremony ever changed politics? Will anything change within the next three days? Look at the “Hopenhagen”-Greenwashing-PR-Deals that came out of COP15 so far… Coca Cola is trying to present itself as the world’s saviour…. with a bottle of hope, everything will be okay. I don’t think so!

Later that night, there was a side event with Norbert Röttgen (Germanys environmental minister), RWE, Eon and the BDI President… interestingly, they discussed the use of CCS and nuclear energy as if it was the most normal ideas you could think of. Indeed, I found myself in this identity-crisis once more, when I realised: Being part of the NGO community that is full of “happy and optimistic” people sometimes dillutes my view of actual realities. Röttgen might have some good intentions. But those guys up their on the panel have (each one of them) more power in our country than Röttgen will ever have. They have market power and money. Röttgen is still fighting our own Development Minister about issues like additionality…and he repeatedly tries to excuse by saying he’s been to this post for only a mere 6 weeks.

I regret to be a pessimist at this point. I have never been a good and credible pessimist. But at this point, I want to sleep and pray I won’t have another nightmare. What’s happening here, right now, is nightmarish enough.