Climate justice action blocks the hallway

Posted on 10. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

As we wait, as we wonder, as the frustration rises, as the end comes closer and no progress is in sight. As we wait in the frantic frenzy of the moon palace, it is inevitable emotions will bubble over.

Actions are a way we as civil society are allowed to have our voices heard here at the unfccc, however over the last few days restrictions on them have become fiercer and fiercer.

We just saw the first of the frustration bubble over with a group of about 10 people blocking one of the hallways here in the moon palace. They were from climate justice groups and they were calling out the unfccc process. They were bringing into the process the voices of indigenous people, of vulnerable people, of the people who this process should be about.

They remained for about 15 minutes before being forcibly removed by security.

Lets see what the rest of this day brings. As we wait, as we wonder, as frustration continues to rise, is this just the beginning?

See more pics from the event on Adopt a Negotiator’s flickr page

In 24 hours?

Posted on 10. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

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 1^st 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.

Palestine - a voice without a vote.

Posted on 09. Dec, 2010 by annac in United Kingdom | View Comments

A lone olive tree along the Israel - Palestine border

As the un climate negotiations in Cancun head towards their close what we have always known, always tried to hide from, and yet never quite managed, is becoming more and more clear.

These negotiations are not about policy, or process. They are about politics.

And yet when we leave these halls, when we return to the real world, when we confront the face of climate change that hides behind the endless acronyms, we see clearly that climate change is not about process, or policy. And it’s definitely not about politics.

It is about people.

It’s about the people now unable to farm their land, it’s about the people walking further and further each day for water, it’s about the people whose homes are slowly disappearing into the sea.

When countries come to the un they are representing their people, they vote on behalf of their people. In this way supposedly every person on the planet is represented here. But what happens if your country isn’t a country, what happens if your land is contested, what happens if politics once more get in the way.

Climate change considers no geographical or political borders, yet when we as humans impose them, then invariably contest them, it is the people who loose out.

Palestine pretty much embodies the word politics, an occupied land with contested borders. Yet Palestine is also on the front line of climate change, an arid land with scarce water resources. If we put the politics aside how are the people of Palestine, the people facing the harshest of conditions, the hardest of lives, how are they able to engage, to have their voice heard in the un climate talks?

Officially Palestine is an observer country at the unfccc. This means they are allowed to take part in all meetings and can speak on the floor, but at the end of the day they cannot vote. In practice this doesn’t always run as smoothly. They have a different colour badge to parties (an olive green vs the party pink) and they have an official letter from the secretariat confirming their ability to attend closed meetings. However when confronted with a security guard with one set of instructions, the different colour is all it takes to be locked out of meetings. Even just being here to participate is more difficult for them. The unfccc funds 2 delegates from every country, not so for observer parties, and they are often left scrabbling for funds at the last minute.

But they are here and they are participating. They are here because back at home it is their land and their families who are bearing the brunt of the onset of climate change. One negotiator I spoke to told me of his family, of his farm. For 30 years they have planted the land, they have lived off what they grow. Now water is scarce, there is not enough of it to irrigate, what they have is too precious to put on the crops. Now they can no longer plant, they can no longer grow. And it is not just his land, in the margins between the West Bank and the desert, in land where herders have lived for thousands of years, there is no longer enough water to grow the fodder to sustain the herds. Land is becoming desert, and as the land goes so does the livelihoods of those who rely on it.

As water becomes scarcer and irrigation a pipe dream all the farmers can do is rely on rain fed agriculture. But the last 7 years have been 7 consecutive dry years. Even the olive trees are dying.

Climate change is a reality in Palestine, the people there are already facing it head on. There is no reversing what has happened, all they can do is live with the consequences. They must now adapt.

Of course adaptation is a huge part of the unfccc, back here in Cancun I am sat with the draft text in front of me, text that should one day lead to developed countries facing up to their historic responsibility and providing funds for developing countries.

But when your country is not a country, when you have no say and are forced to observe, when your people are not represented, then you also don’t have the right to this money.

As an observer not a party to the unfccc process, the people of Palestine have no access to the billions of dollars of funding that will one day soon hopefully start to flow. No access to funds that could mean the difference between life and death. For Palestine this is not a political issue, it is not geographical, it is not even environmental. For Palestine this is a humanitarian issue, another humanitarian issue on top of the many they are already struggling with. As their negotiator said “We are not less than other countries and we are not more, we are equal.” Adaptation funding is not about politics, it is about people. Regardless of politics, the people of Palestine deserve access to funds that could save their life. Palestine is prepared, they have a national adaptation strategy, but without funds they can do nothing. The farmland will continue to be swallowed by the desert, the people will begin to starve.

“Geographically we are part of this world, our people need to be counted, that’s all we want here.”

Regardless of politics, regardless of country status, regardless of the colour of their negotiators badge here at the unfccc, the people of Palestine, the people who have done little or nothing to contribute to climate change, deserve access to funds, access to the means to sustain their way of life.

For an olive green badge are we going to let the olive trees die.

This is not about politics, this is about people.