Think Big
Posted on 10. Oct, 2010 by joannadafoe in Canada
The Tianjin talks have wrapped to a close and some general progress has been made with the negotiating text. The negotiating text for the LCA (non-Kyoto Protocol track) can be found here. Some support for legal-based language in this track shows potential for progress towards Cancun.
Some good signs... a place for legally binding outcomes in the LCA text. Page 4.
The text for the KP can be found here and lays the groundwork (or shall we say the building rough sketch) for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. [Ah for Canada... whatever will we do when our first commitment period obligations go spilling into the second?] A lot of negotiations were held behind closed doors, although this apparently is the norm at the UNFCCC.
On the homefront, during the final few days of negotiations a Government supported project was launched entitled Climate Prosperity. The report is authored by the National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment and aims “to provide insight for Canadians and policy advice to governments on both the economic risks and the economic opportunities for Canada associated with a warming planet… This is not just about coping with climate change, but prospering through it.” The website uses quite a hopeful narrative around the opportunities with climate change. Many leaders in the environment community have flagged concerns with this report and the optimism it evokes.
Diagnosing and observing climate policy is always a fascinating reflection of the human values behind it. Over these years at the UNFCCC, I’ve started to reflect on how we speak about climate change and I’d like to wrap-up my Tianjin reports on this note.
A Language Older Than Words
The universe is 13 billion years old. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
Maybe it’s because we just wrapped up the 10/10/10 350.org Global Work Day, but I’m struck by the lack of reverence in UNFCCC plenary. States will promote their self-interest, they will invent loopholes and build strategic allies, they will put chapeaus, footnotes, and brackets on text; but they do not reflect a sense of wonder and awe for life on the planet.
I had this wishful goal last year of building a planetarium in the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. Then I would assign a mandatory planetarium session during the meetings so that delegates review a concentrated history of the cosmos from the Big Bang up until now. Or, perhaps during negotiations if a conflict develops then all Parties will revisit the story of our Universe. Whatever conflicts yield so much stress in negotiations might be viewed, with such perspective, as dramatic - perhaps even childish. Maybe negotiators will laugh at the whole process as risky and misguided. New Zealand on behalf of Annex 1 countries received a Fossil Award on Friday for wielding a harsh ultimatum between forest management rules on their terms or mitigation targets. Where is the respect and reverence in these hardball tactics?
So my parting hope for everyone - citizens, negotiators, and especially my Government - is to keep this perspective when choosing the fate of our home.
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ed jonas
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Joanna
