Adopt A Negotiator » United Kingdom
Adopt A Negotiator » United Kingdom
Adopt A Negotiator » United Kingdom
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Posted: 06 Jun 2009 12:36 AM PDT  Sometimes the UNFCCC makes it pretty hard to believe... Now I’m generally a pretty optimistic person, my glass is always half full (unless as Cara pointed out it’s a pint of beer!), but one thing I’ve learnt this week is that the UNFCCC does not inspire optimism! We know that we need drastic action on climate change, I don’t think anyone here is in any doubt. The activists and the negotiators, we all know our world is in critical danger and that we HAVE to get a deal out of these negotiations. Peoples’ mere survival depends on our ability to agree to a deal that will keep runaway climate change under control. But we’re just not getting there! These negotiations are painfully slow. Countries are stalling, arguing and even bringing up completely irrelevant issues such as the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas. For that UK and Argintina, I was forced to accept Fossil of the Day on our behalf on Thursday. This is not the time or place for solving sovereignty disputes, this is the time to solve the question of whether I have a future on this planet or not!
UNFCCC working groups are also now telling us that they will be reporting back in Copenhagen not just what they have agreed, but also what they have not quite managed to finish….. Now hang on a second here, I’m also currently trying to write an essay for my Masters, I’m not sure I would be getting a very good mark if on Friday I handed in a half finished one with a note informing my tutor what I hadn’t quite managed to write in time! We have only 6 months left to get this right, now is the time for us all to be aware of what is going on in these negotiations because it is only then that we can unite and push our leaders to make the deal. We have to understand the process, we have to know what we risk to loose with a half cooked deal and we have to make our voices heard. On a day when over 20 of our brothers and sisters were shot in the Amazon for trying to defend our planet and stop the pillaging of natural resources, we have to stand together as one world and not many countries. Only then can we hope that our governments and our negotiators may do the same. But as depressing as these talks currently stand today is also a day for optimists! Because today in Bonn, the Global Call for Climate Action along with the international youth and many other partners are uniting to tell our negotiators YES WE CAN! (see what we did there, thanks Obama..) In half an hour I will be heading down to the park by the conference centre where we will spell out our message for a giant aerial photo, before heading over to the conference to come together and tell our negotiators; that we are watching, that we are fighting, but also that we believe they can do it! Because today we have to have hope and we have to have faith, without it the fight is too hard. Today we have to say YES WE CAN!       |
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Posted: 05 Jun 2009 04:06 AM PDT  Not even the white rabbit ran as late as the EU is! One thing I’ve learnt about the negotiations during the last week is that they never start on time! I’m currently sat in the main plenary hall waiting for a session to start, it’s 10:30am and the session was scheduled to start at 10am! But I guess what’s a half hour here or there, it’s only our planet and all our lives were fighting for here. We’ve got loads of time to get this deal………right? But now it’s 10:36 and we’ve finally started! Today the discussion is around finance and is being kicked off by the Philippines speaking on behalf of the group of 77 and China (though randomly the G77 actually is a group of 130 countries-Just another strange anomaly of the UN process). The G77 is the largest group of developing countries and they speak together within the negotiations. Can you even imagine that meeting where they are all trying to decide one statement to say. I’m glad I don’t have to facilitate that! But with the discussion going on around finance I thought that it was a good time to return to trying to explain a bit more about what’s going on around the UK, and the EU.
So in March this year EU leaders agreed to support two proposals, one from Mexico and one from Norway, for climate finance commitments . But ever since they have been doing a Tango around the specifics of their support for each. As I explained yesterday they have also failed to actually put any money, or even offers of money on the table, and so we are still completely unaware of the level of support they will give. They have however been desperately working to try and get back up to speed in the last few weeks, all the finance ministries have been meeting to discuss the proposals. They have been discussing things such as; who should control the money, where the money will come from (public or private sectors), how much exactly each member of the EU should contribute, along with much more. But we are still waiting! The ministers will meet again on Tuesday next week and we are all waiting with baited breath to see if they can give us anything that might move these negotiations along. Finance is a critical element that we need if we are to have success in Copenhagen but no one from the EU seems to want to talk about it. Put simply no money… equals no deal in Copenahgen! We need to call on the EU to put their money on the table, actually make commitments, and make sure they’re good. The world is waiting for the EU and we’re running late. It’s a bit of a novelty for us from the UK but we are not the bad guys in these negotiations, or within the EU. So we need to take this rare chance and lead! That’s the most important thing we can call on our negotiators and our governement to do right now. We need to push for the EU to make these finance commitments and we need to push for them to be as substantial as the need requires! We need to see A LOT of money on the table! I really don’t want to have to spend all next week blogging about money! Two in two days is bad enough! So come on finance ministers, you can do it, put your money where your mouth is!       |
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