CANCUN, Mexico —  Canada stood out at the UN climate meetings last week for its lack of leadership. Canada received its fourth Fossil of the Day award on Friday Dec. 3 for trying to remove itself from any legally binding emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that is the world’s only binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  Canada’s position on Kyoto raises worries about the international community’s ability to reach an agreement in Cancun.

During a Thursday press briefing, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiania Figueres, informed journalists that Canada is trying to block an agreement on the Kyoto Protocol. I had met and spoken with our lead negotiator who explained that no one is trying to kill Kyoto. Was the executive secretary misinformed? Was our lead negotiator misleading us?

It turns out that both the executive secretary and Canada’s lead negotiator are right. Canada does not want to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, so long as it does not have emission reduction targets. In the words of one organizer in Cancun, Canada is not trying to kill the Kyoto Protocol, but we are trying to put it in a coma.

“Canada’s greenhouse gas pollution is soaring and instead of doing anything to reduce it, we are trying to get in the way of over 180 countries that recognize the urgency in tracking action,” says Steven Guilbeault from Equiterre. Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have climbed by 30 per cent since 1990.

But reducing greenhouse gas pollution is only one significant aspect of the Kyoto Protocol. In Cancun, almost every other negotiating issue is hinged on the extension of a legally binding mandate for developed countries.

Leela Raina, a climate campaigner from India, explains the impact of Canada’s fall back from Kyoto. “Canada’s position on Kyoto impacts the trust in the negotiations. If you have already signed on to a document internationally and you are still not following those commitments, it’s a big signal to other countries that you are not serious about your word.”

The absence of an extended legal mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions puts the ability of the conference to reach a balanced package at risk. The success of the Kyoto Protocol impacts other negotiating issues in Cancun that are essential, including climate finance and adaptation.

Canada has announced instead its hope to anchor pledges under the Copenhagen Accord, a voluntary agreement reached last year. Under that agreement, Canada has made a voluntary emissions reduction offer that is weaker than the Kyoto target.

Canada wins first, second, and third place Fossil of the Day Award in Cancun today. The award is given daily to the country who has done the most to disrupt and undermine negotiations.

As the most salient and recent climate offense, Canada’s first place award is granted for killing the Climate Change Accountability Act. Our second place award goes for Federal efforts to gut climate change programs, including:
- The only major federal support program for renewable energy program funding energy efficiency upgrades for homeowners
- Funding for Canada’s climate science foundation
- Clean fuels policies in other countries.

And our third place award goes for a general commitment to regain title of “colossal fossil“: the country making the least constructive contribution to the negotiations.

While the Fossil Award is intended to evoke drama in what can often be a dull process, there is a more somber underlying message. In only the first day of negotiations Canada has been viewed by the international environmental community as being sufficiently obstructive to receive all three prizes.

The Fossil prize is granted the same day the Montreal Gazette published e-mail excerpts from the Canadian Embassy in 2008. In one particularly forthright exchange, Canadian Embassy staff person Jason Tolland wrote to government trade lawyers “we hope that we can find a solution to ensure that the oil keeps a-flowing.”

While this quote is not dressed in diplomat-speak, does it perhaps show the underlying focus of Canadian policy in Cancun – to keep the oil a-flowing? I sure hope not. I hope to see Canada lose its status in the Fossil ceremonies in Cancun, and I’m sure many folks at home do too.

Check out a brief clip of the award here, or the whole 8 minute performance below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/S7a0-JJz8Mg?fs=1&hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/v/JdC0pvkevEU?fs=1&hl=en_US

Full footage courtesty of OneWorld TV.

The most profound difference between my experience here in Bonn and my experience at all the other negotiations I’ve attended in the last year is the massive downward shift in people’s ambition and sense of possibility. I find it difficult to understand how we’ve gone from an unrelenting & furious global push for a fair, ambitious, binding DECEMBER deal to address climate change; only four months later, to what’s being described by most as a minimum of 2 additional years of negotiations to achieve the same outcome.

It’s so confusing. In just four months, what changed?

Did we realize after having such a hard fight yield only as much as the Copenhagen Accord – that we didn’t and don’t actually have enough fight left in us to unlock the rest of the solutions that our future demands?

No. I actually think the prevailing view is that the Accord was a substantive first step toward a solution for countries like the US who haven’t engaged constructively on climate at an international level in near a decade. We built up enough momentum to bring 144 heads of state together to take action on climate change. They fell short of our expectations, but nothing like what we did last December has ever happened before. Even in comparison to recent action on health care reform back home, Copenhagen was a “big f*cking deal”.

Did all the bright-eyed folks, fighting for a better future, get so crushed by Copenhagen that they just threw in their hats?

No. I’m in the company of bright-eyed folks in Bonn right now, and we have plenty of fight left. If anything, I’m even more driven. My country’s inability to pass an energy bill last year was a big part of the reason our Copenhagen hopes were dashed – or at least delayed. It was our negotiators at the table, so I own at least a piece of whatever failure we’ve suffered. Because of it, I intend to push smarter and harder toward an outcome deserving of our best aspirations, and I know I’m not alone.

So what changed? Why did negotiators spend most of Friday and Saturday talking about how many meetings they’ll need just to make progress toward realizing our delayed Copenhagen hopes by the end this year. Why the lowered ambitions?

First of all – it’s important to note that some countries, especially the most vulnerable developing countries, are calling for all parties to reach an ambitious & legally binding deal by the end of this year. They can’t afford to wait, and have a moral obligation to push as hard as possible to ensure their people’s security in the face of the threats that climate instability brings.

The rest of us, while not escaping any moral implications of inaction, seem to have taken note of a new political reality. America isn’t ready… and if we are, the rest of the world isn’t convinced.

The better known “big f*cking deal” in recent months, health care reform, postponed energy legislation that could have given us enough credibility to negotiate an agreement that matched our COP15 hopes and expectations. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it in time.

Now, with a Kerry-Graham-Lieberman Energy Reform Bill just weeks from dropping in the Senate, the rest of the world still isn’t sure we’ll get it signed and delivered anytime soon. Even if the bill quickly finds the support needed to work through Senate committees and make it’s way to a vote on the floor, that vote won’t likely come until the end of the year or later.

Worse – there are rumors floating through the halls of the Bonn Climate Change Talks that the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman Bill will skip the international finance provisions that make or break our clout in these negotiations. All of this is a “big f*cking deal”, and it has fundamentally changed both countries’ and activists’ sense of what’s possible in our work together over the coming year.

As our US Delegation negotiates with their skeptical peers from other countries to agree next steps and lay the framework for future progress, I’m feeling that fight inside me and I know where to take it.

It’s time we turn our attention toward making the US a credible partner in this process. We need a bill with the right tools to fuel these negotiations (those key international finance provisions); a bill that helps elevate America to her leadership role in the new clean energy economy; and we need that bill damn fast — “This is a big f*cking deal”.

Canada’s hot ticket to winning the UN climate meetings this weekend in Bonn is through ambitious climate finance.  Any decision on climate financing will follow straight from the Copenhagen fast-track climate financing decision.  Canada has not yet announced how much it will contribute to this funding, or if this money will be additional to our official development assistance.  The fast-track financing contributes a total of 30 billion dollars for mitigation and adaptation programs in developing countries.  In a report published by the Pembina Institute, Canada’s fair share of the total amount is 3 to 4% (roughly $300 to $400 million dollars per year by the year 2010).  In a February 1st speech, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said:

In his speech, Minister Prentice articulates the equity principles that underline these entire negotiations – it is the idea that wealthy countries have the capacity to finance climate solutions more than poor countries.  The equity principle is not just an ethical concern but is central to the negotiations and any tenable agreement.   The strong reference to climate change equity made by Minister Prentice gives us reason to hope that Canada has the will to do it’s fair share.

Keep Up the Pressure!

Instead of a convention center, the negotiations in Bonn are held in a hotel.  I am told there is nothing unusual or odd about a hotel UN conference (the intersessionals always convene here), but something is strange… almost as-if a wedding party can be found just around the corner.  But far from celebratory, the negotiators in the Hotel Maritim seem weary, and tired.  The Bonn atmosphere cannot be more different from Copenhagen.  There is a small presence of NGOs, and the number of Canadians totaled here in Bonn: 3.

I do not think that our smaller numbers indicate a lowered interest in the negotiations.  In fact, I think there is a heightened awareness around the UN process coming out of Copenhagen – and communities back home are more focused on solutions.  This fits well with the new 350.org motto “get to work.” Back home this motto is already a reality.  A lot of Canadian’s are collaborating, setting the political base for strong legislation, and creating solutions without even necessarily knowing it! I want to outline two affirming updates I recieve in my inbox today.

1.) Canada’s Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311). This Wednesday April 14th, Parliament Hill will take a final vote on Bill C-311 – our most ambitious climate legislation that, if passed, will set national greenhouse gas emission targets for Canada that align with scientific targets for avoiding dangerous climate change.  Learn more about the Bill and how to take action.

2.) Renew Canada’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program. On March 31st, Natural Resources Canada cancelled it’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program.  Tangible actions like home retrofits are exactly the kind of results driven programs that Canada needs to reduce it’s greenhouse gas emissions. It shows the world that Canadians and the Government take seriously the new climate change motto of “Get to Work.”  You can help to bring the ecoENERGY program back by writing your Member of Parliament who you can find here or read a backgrounder on the program.

These talks are important.  Big decisions (deal breaker ones) are made at the UNFCCC because it is the only international framework we have. But right now the UNFCCC is not where the leadership is shown; it seems most evident in communities back home.  I want to take this moment to thank and recognize all of those people working hard for change, and staying positive.  It is evident that people care, and that everyday Canadians are getting to work.  The poet Wendell Berry describes the new ethos of Canada’s community-based leadership -

Our tasks “will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

Working together we will refocus international efforts back on solutions.  No more loopholes, no more excuses.  Canada, let’s get to work!

 The UNFCCC Secretariat reports that this decision is due to over-capacity at the Bella Conference centre.  

Video Credit of Adopt A Negotiator: A long line-up to enter the Bella Center.  

According to a memo sent out by the observer organization liaison, the 22,000 registered observers were limited to 7000 today, on Thursday this numbers will be further limited to 1000, and on Friday only 90 observers will be permitted access to the negotiations.

In response to the limit on participation, a collective of environmental organizations issued a statement charging the process as undemocratic. 

It is true that the details of complex negotiations often pan out behind closed doors; but it is also instructive to ask how the negotiations might change with the lowered numbers of civil society.  Everything from the plenary atmosphere to the public pressure felt by negotiators will vary – and greatly so.  It seems as-if the Rio Declaration needs rewriting to reflect the negotiating realities of climate change, which seems more like a G8 Summit or WTO meeting.  Otherwise, the UNFCCC Secretariat needs to strengthen its inclusion of civil society if it truly does value our input.

The Cooperative Financial Services delegates flew into Edmonton on Canada day.  They brought along with them Emily Beament, a member of the British Press Association, a BBC film crew and Paul Myles from Ecologist Magazine.  We drove north to Lac La Biche, passing through Fort Saskatchewan – the refinery and upgrading center of Alberta, the nexus of so many pipelines – pushing the natural gas needed to drive the engines of the oil industry.  Past the Dow Chemical plant and the miles and miles of puffing smokestacks.  Across the road from all this industry a few skinny cattle graze and you begin to give serious thought to how enticed you’ll be next time you see the words “Alberta Beef.”

On Thursday morning, we meet our plane at the tiny green terminal building of the Lac La Biche airport.  We fly north over the vast green forests, bogs and fens of the boreal.  Seismic lines old and new checkering and cris-crossing and carving the wood into unnatural patterns in long desperate lines that stretch as far as the eye can see.  Everywhere little squares of SAGD’s old and new scar the landscape.

In Fort McMurray the “Beeb” crew tape up the helicopters with duct tape and external cameras for the flight out over the heart of the problem.  We slide up the valley of the Clearwater River and its pretty, pretty like river valleys are supposed to be, and then you come up over the rise and its all there in front of you.  And. it. is. devastating.  There are moments when, 2,000 ft up, the entire horizon is open pit mines and upgraders, a thousand of those tiny trucks down there, each three stories high and carrying 100 tons of tar sands, these hundreds of foot high pipes burning off sour gas in eternal shooting flames (because its cheaper than upgrading it) – and the lakes (no ponds, no) the lakes of strange grayish yellow that go on and on and on.  There’s a new lake district in Alberta – but you wouldn’t want to pop in there to cool off on a hot sunny day.  There’s another moment, when each of us on that helicopter, each of us committed, by the laws of our childhood, by our faiths, by our sense of duty, by what ever moral or ethical bubble guides us, committed to the care and the protection of this good earth which sustains us, which fills us with food and life and cool, cool water and we all think – “this is too big, too terrible and it cannot be stopped.”  And I am weeping, weeping with the sickness of it, weeping with the anger and hatred for those who direct this thing, for those who profit from this thing.

Remember the scene in the animated version of Watership Down?  Where the rabbits who escaped the warren late catch up and describe the bulldozers and the gas poured down the holes?

In my early 20s I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder – and looking down on this fucked up mess I think: “This will all start over again.  I will wake every night now, shivering and shaking and unable to scream and this will be the thing that is in my head – this image I will carry with me all of my life.”  But it is a good thing to go, and to see, and to bear witness, I think.

We retire to the Benson hunting lodge for the evening.  It’s a buffalo ranch next to the Beaver Lake reserve, and it is incredible peaceful and serene.  In the early morning you wake to the soft snorting of the buffalo and the deer jump golden in the slanting light from their nighttime safety slip among the herd.  And we pack up to drive around to some of the SAGD and pipelines in the area.  Everything seems mild after the tar sands pits – but you don’t have to look long at the miles of gleaming silver pipelines running six-abreast to understand why the caribou went away.  On the side of a massive upgrader a huge sign, one presumes about worker safety, reads “Stop and think!!!”  Yes, perhaps we should.

But in the evening we are back at the Beaver Lake cultural grounds for the Pow Wow.  And it is a hell of a show.  It is the plains First Nations at their very finest, at their most joyful and their most proud and it is a truly amazing thing to behold.  It is one of those moments when I feel most blessed in my vocation.  When we first arrive there are cameras and journalists everywhere, Chief Lameman and the Pow Wow marshals emerge from the tent where they have just completed a pipe ceremony – to respond to the reports and the mics in their faces.  And they are soft-spoken, thoughtful – and determined as hell.

We walk into the Grand Entry, following Chief Lameman and his Council, Germaine Anderson, Jerry Gladue, and Hank Gladue.  As we stand in the center of the ring and hundreds of swirling dancers in traditional gear move around us – it’s enough to make a scrawny white guy a bit nervous.  And it is so, so cool.  I think the pasty Brits from Manchesters’ eyes are going to fall out of their heads.  No one is prepared for the precision and power of the spectacle, or the strength and power of Cree drumming and singing.  Your body just moves to it.  We are honoured by Chief and Council with blankets and as we try to slip quietly to the sidelines we’re instructed – “No, no – you have to dance one round with your blankets.”  I laugh, thinking they’re having me off (as the Brits would say).  And the photographer for the Journal says “I think he’s serious.”  And I think the photographer just sees a good opportunity for some funny shots of lawyers trying to dance.  So after one dance I try to slip away again – only to be told by a grinning Kookum – “No, no, once you start you have to dance until it’s over.”  So someone is having me off – but who am I to complain?  The beat rides your blood. Some of the children have recognized Colin from pictures around the Band office – and they gather around him – teaching him their styles.

The next day it’s back to the Pow Wow and a breakfast of Bannock burgers and Indian tacos.  We aim for the less-professional looking stands, hoping for the perfect home-made bison burger.  On the way I’m asked by Colin if there’s any sort of “shamanistic” tradition amongst the Cree and I grin – knowing what lies ahead in the next few days.  As we walk in, a local healer is standing, chatting with my colleagues.

Throughout the day the announcers at the Pow Wow are welcoming the visitors from over the big pond – and cracking wise about words like “Blimey” (apparently from “God Blind Me!”).  That afternoon Colin goes up to give away some presents from the Cooperative – and the announcer invites folks up from outside Treaty 6 and Colin is surrounded by children – the perfect pale slim summer Santa.  And Colin and Paul present a check for $100,000 Canadian to Chief Lameman and a director from RAVEN – to help protect the lands, to help constraint the tar sands in their seemingly insurmountable march.  Chief Al says – “without the land we have nothing, we must protect it.”  My boss, big Jack Woodward, standing tall in his misshapen cowboy hat takes the mic, and sets the crowd on fire.  He gives them a new copy of an old treaty – says that promises must be kept.  And the shouts and war cries fill the Pow Wow ring, and my heart. And I think “Hi, hi.  It is an honour to serve the People.”

In particular, the speech delivered by Karmila Karapassi from Indonesia has struck me. Her words were delivered with such strength and compassion that there was not a competing noise in the room. When Karmila said to the plenary “youth around the world are rising to the challenge,” all of the youth stood from their chairs with their hand raised, filling the room with their presence. Young people of all ages from all over the world stood together in silence, our eyes fixed on the negotiators whose decisions we would inherent.

Seeing viscerally, for the first time, the size of our dynamic youth movement filled me with a hope and a faith.

I have hope because countries like Canada, who neglect the Kyoto Process and the international community, have also catalyzed the emergence of a strong, mobilized, and powerful international youth community.

I have faith because the scope of the issue is so enormous that it forces us to rethink the way we live, and this gives us an opportunity.

As one youth said to a room full of negotiators, the climate emergency is our best, and possibly last, opportunity to create a global consciousness.

While the particulars of the mandate continue to be discussed, I hope that Canadians back home are engaged with what is happening in Bali and discussing the position of the Canadian government. I have been tremendously unimpressed not just with the political platform of the Canadian delegation but also with their manner of conduct. Minister Baird has been AWOL from high-level meetings, failed to show up at his own side event to explain the Canadian Turning the Corner Plan, refused to invite opposition ministers in his delegation (but include industry representatives), and refused to meet with any of the UN constituency groups that have requested meetings with the Minister for months in advance.