Next round of climate negotiations begin TODAY – decisions on climate finance could help rebuild trust

Posted on 31. May, 2010 by Cara Bevington in Australia | View Comments

Today, Monday 31 May, governments from around the world are resuming the climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany. This includes Ambassador Louise Hand and members of the Australian government negotiating team, many of whom you will be familiar with from our blogs in 2009!

A lot has been written about last December’s Copenhagen climate summit, frustration has been expressed at the lack of progress. Against the disappointment and the frustration of these negotiations you and I know that climate impacts continue to have devastating affects on people’s lives around the world.

While Copenhagen clearly didn’t deliver the global deal our world needs, 2010 does offer us some opportunities to ensure that the limited progress and commitments that were made do reach fruition.

One key area for progress, which will help re-build trust in the international process to fight climate change, is climate finance.  At the Copenhagen Climate Summit, world governments pledged to create a ‘Climate Fund’ worth $100Bn per year by 2020 to help developing countries act. This money could help the most vulnerable communities avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

But at the moment this Fund is little more than a name and number.  UN negotiators must now agree where the cash is going to come from, how those who need it most will access it, and that the money delivered is above and beyond existing aid commitments.

Just this morning, aid agency Oxfam International released a report “The $100billion questions” which details how this large sum of money can be generated without squeezing extra cash from taxpayers. It also addresses how this money should be spent in order to ensure that it reaches those communities most vulnerable to climate impacts. The solutions are there, what we need now is government action. Read Oxfam Australia’s media release.

This time around neither Phil nor I are on the ground at the meetings. Instead, we will be tracking the negotiations remotely, getting information from our key contacts as well as talking with the Australian government. We’ll be updating you as news comes to hand. And we’ve secured some on ground reporting from guest bloggers who are in Bonn; Georgina Woods (Climate Action Network of Australia) and Rachel Coghlan (World Vision Australia). And of course you can stay up to date here on Adopt A Negotiator.

While it may seem to some that the climate movement has lost some momentum, we know that climate change wont wait while the world negotiates. It’s our role to get back on the horse and let our the government and our negotiators know that Australians still want to see action. Write you ask for action below and we’ll make sure it gets to the Australian negotiating team.

Tracking for you,

Cara (and Phil)

PS. Check out our sister project UN Climate Trackers on A Climate for Change.

Another meeting, but are we closer to a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal?

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Cara Bevington in Australia, bits | View Comments

It went so fast you could have missed it. So fast that you may not have realised it actually happened. So fast it makes you wonder what is really was?

What was it then? 

From the 9th till the 11th of April all nations came together to meet in Bonn to continue the talks that happened (for lack of a better word) in Copenhagen. This was the first chance since Copenhagen people could come together under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to take stock of where the international negotiations on climate change were up to.

Where is it up to I hear you ask…

Well, in true UNFCCC style the meeting closed with two marathon closing meetings that ran into the early hours of the morning. To top this all off, the closing statement read by granada was read in the form of a poem, yes thats right the climate negotiations closed in rhythm and rhyme!  

In terms of content the meeting was largely technical, deciding on when the next meetings would be, for how long, what texts would be negotiated etc. etc.

However, this meeting did signal some of the broader issues that will need to be resolved before Mexico (the next Copenhagen …. so to speak).

The elephant in the room is The Copenhagen Accord. This is the agreement that was controversially stitched together at the last minute in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen Accord is NOT legally binding, it is NOT ambitious, and by virtue of these two facts it is certainly not fair to the most vulnerable on earth who stand to lose the most.

What I don’t think has been well communicated is that this ‘Accord’ has only been ‘noted’ by the UNFCCC meetings. It has not been formally accepted in the UNFCCC process and it appears as if it will not be. The main disagreement which surfaced at this Bonn meeting is that the US wants this document to be the main agreement where as others, namely developing countries, want only parts of this text to be taken forward.

So here we are… back to the texts. Text negotiations are not all bad, however, I confess that I am anxious to see some real fruit come of all this meeting and talking. Its not like the atmosphere has decided to stop accepting greenhouse gases until we come to a decision. Nor can we rely on Icelandic volcanos to keep erupting and filling the atmosphere with ash that reflects sunlight.

In my assessment, this meeting wasn’t so much a step forward as it was a stand still and a look around while we contemplate whether we will actually try to DO SOMETHING!

No more, no less?

Amidst this frustratingly slow process, the Australian Government in all its splendor has announced it will do no more and no less than other countries (see our last blog: http://adoptanegotiator.org/category/australia/). Now that is the ambition we have all come to know and love.

Sparing you my ruminations about the domestic political context in Australia, I think we all agree that Australia needs to STEP UP AND TAKE A LEADING ROLE on climate change (or at the very least take some serious action).

Even if our government aint acting, you can TAKE ACTION and call you local MPs office and let them know that you are watching them and think Australia needs to step up and take a leading role this year… this federal election year. Follow this link for a full list of Australian MP offices with phone numbers: www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memlist.pdf

It’s not too late. There are still four more meetings before Mexico.

Tracking for you,

Phil & Cara

PS. Make sure to check out our sister Australian site www.aclimateforchange.org

We’re baaaaack! But worried that Australia is lagging behind

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by Cara Bevington in Adopt a Negotiator, Australia | View Comments

Last year we were overwhelmed by the pledges you guys made to keep pressure on our government to act on climate change. Very excitingly, as 2010 is an election year here in Australia, we have real opportunities to turn our desires for change into real action…

Here’s why.

Much has been written about the disappointment of the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, commentators across the globe criticised it for being a talk fest with no real action. Opposition leader Tony Abbott gleefully embraced the fact that the meeting was unable to produce a global climate agreement to argue against an emissions trading scheme being established in Australia.

What has seldom been mentioned is the fact that within just a few months, the outcomes from the Copenhagen meeting has driven governments across the world to do more to tackle climate change, not less. Read on…

Last week the Deutcshe Bank released their latest Global Climate Change Policy Tracker. It states that over 80 countries around the world have submitted emission reduction targets or carbon “action plans” covering more than 80 per cent of global emissions and 90 per cent of the global economy. While we still have a long way to go to secure a safe climate future, these commitments should not be sneezed at. (Check out the US Climate Action Network’s useful table “Who’s On Board with the Copenhagen Accord?”)

While Rudd and Abbott have recently come out with the mantra that Australia will do “no more no less” than the rest of the world when it comes to tackling climate change, it is abundantly clear that we are doing less.

We’re investing less.

According to a report released by the Pew Centre, China overtook the US and the rest of the rich world for the first time in clean energy investments last year. China invested $AUD 37.3 billion, a far cry from the $AUD 20billion by the US and in another league entirely from Australia’s $AUD 1.1billion. Australia even ranked behind developing countries such as Mexico, Turkey and India, to name a few.

We’re not playing our fair part in reducing emissions.

Australia is one of the worlds biggest per person emitters of climate change causing gases. But, we submitted to the UN post-Copenhagen one of the most disappointing pledges to reduce our domestic emissions. Erwin Jackson from The Climate Institute wrote in his blog that Australia “continues to free ride on global efforts to reduce emissions by keeping a 5 percent emissions reduction target on the table… It would have been helpful to global momentum, if Australia had lifted this 5 per cent “floor” in its target range to at least 15%.”

Why is Australia lagging behind?

Whoever we want to direct blame at it is clear that right now Australia is in danger of being a global laggard on climate action. While some in Australia continue to raise misconceptions that action on climate change has stalled, this risks our future prosperity. The world is not waiting for us to act. Why should we wait and let our competitors for jobs and investments get further ahead?

This weekend government representatives from all over the world will again meet at the home of the UN Climate Secretariat in Bonn, Germany, to amongst other things decide on how they will work together this year. What will their objectives for 2010 be? The outcomes from this meeting will give us important indicators as to how the world will work on climate policy this year.

There will be six international negotiator trackers on ground at the meeting hailing from Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, the UK, and the USA. You can get their latest blogs, tweets and video updates. As your Australian Climate Trackers we’ll also be in close contact with the international co-ordinator of the Climate Action Network of Australia who will be in Bonn to bring you news of the Australian delegation.

We’re not going to pretend that this meeting will be exciting. But we do know that it’s significant. That’s why we’re back and questioning why is Australia being a global laggard on climate action? If we’re currently doing so poorly, we can only improve…. right?

Comment on this blog and let us know what you think the Australian Government needs to do this year.

Tracking for you.

Cara & Phil

PS. You can also find this blog on our sister site A Climate for Change