Our changing climate

Posted on 04. Apr, 2011 by annac in United Kingdom

4 months ago at 4am on a tropical shore far from where I sit now, a slow rumble of applause swelled in a UN hall, spilled over into the corridors of the fancy hotel the climate negotiations were happening in and out into early morning mist.

4 months ago at 4am we rose to our feet in Plenary and clapped our hands. More than a celebration it was a collective sigh, an outpouring of relief that there in Cancun we had achieved something. That the hours, days, weeks of negotiations, time in our lives spent in artificially lit grey boxes, never to be recaptured. That this effort had finally seen us edge, however minutely, a step closer to achieving that distant glimmer of hope. Finally edge a step closer to a global deal that would provide an adequate response to the challenge of climate change.

4 months is a long time. In these 4 months I have traveled Central America, I have seen some of the most beautiful places in the world, I have learnt about revolutionary social movements and others ideas for a better world. I have returned to the UK to a country in freefall. To a country where 1 in 5 young people are unemployed, where I am one of those statistics, struggling to find a job, any job. To a country where half a million people have come out on the streets to protest against our Governments reform package that sees sweeping cuts to public services. To a country where anger is the prevailing mood and activism is breaking out of the usual mold to encompass a sweeping grassroots movement up and down the country.

4 months is a long time.

In the last 4 months the wider world has shifted too. One young man reaching his tipping point, has sparked revolutions across the Middle East. The people rose up and would not go away, decades old regimes fell, belief became possible and like wild fire the spirit of revolution spread.

In the 4 months since that slow rumble escaped the plenary hall the climate has well and truly changed.

Climate:
1. The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.
2. A region of the earth having particular meteorological conditions.
3. A prevailing condition or set of attitudes in human affairs.

We live in a very different world to the one we did then, the balance of power is being challenged, the status quo blown apart.

We are seeing cracks in the belief of the impossible. Cracks being forced apart by the sheer weight of people power. Cracks through which the possible is creeping upwards and blossoming into a flourishing idea…

An idea that there is an alternative.

But what does this mean for the UN climate negotiations?

4 months after Cancun the UNFCCC circus has moved on and this week sees the 1st of this years negotiations happening in Bangkok. I am not there but I shall watch these negotiations from afar.

And it is an interesting place to be.

As I sit in the UK following my team struggle with the intricacies of the UNFCCC process. As I for once juxtapose my involvement with the process with the realities of my real life. As I sit in such a shifted climate. I ponder the bigger questions.

Is the UNFCCC still relevant in this new world?

Is climate change an issue in a world where my main worry is finding a job?

Will victories that come in such minute steps be accepted in a world that now expects big change?

I have spent 3 years investing my time, my mind, my heart and my soul into the UN climate negotiations process. I want to believe we can get there. But sitting in my shifted world it seems hard to even dare to believe that the UNFCCC will have shifted too.

But as this weeks negotiations start maybe I have to.

Perhaps this year will be the year we see cracks open up in the façade of impossibility that surrounds the UN climate talks. Perhaps, through these cracks will grow an idea that a better world is possible, and that it starts by connecting and by agreeing at this international level.

Perhaps there is an alternative to the stagnation and baby steps that we judge progress by.

Perhaps, as the applause drifted through the corridors of the negotiations in Cancun, perhaps that crack was opening.

And if so, if we want to blow that crack open, if we want to explore that blossoming idea, if we want the alternative, if we know our changing climate…

It starts by daring to believe.

Tags: Bangkok, climate change, cuts, featured, middle east, revolution, UNFCCC