It’s Getting Hot In Here

Two nights ago I was blown away by Al Gore’s speech. He reminded me of why I do this work, and inspired me to keep at it. He spoke of the necessity of taking action now, of the moral imperative of immediate adaptation measures, and of the need for hard targets. “Global warming anywhere is a threat to the world everywhere. We must leave Bali with a strong mandate. It’s not a political issue. It’s not a diplomatic issue. It’s a moral issue.”

This, however, is a stark difference from the way that the US delegation is acting in Bali. It is now Saturday morning, and negotiations are still occurring…with no help from the US, who has done everything in the last week to impede progress and slow the negotiations, as well as weaken the text of the Bali Mandate. Last night the US and EU had a closed-door meeting for several hours. The EU delegations walked out of the meeting sometime after midnight supporting the removal of language from the text that discussed emission targets. They agreed to remove reference to the 25-40% emission targets by 2020, the very basis of post-Kyoto action!! I am still baffled as to what the US was able to do in a few hours to get the world’s leading intergovernmental party on climate change action to back out of the very foundation for these negotiations. It is cruelly ironic how utterly DESTRUCTIVE our government is being compared to Gore, the candidate who lost to George W. Bush. The man who doesn’t actually hold a government position is the one pushing for international leadership on this global issue. The real US delegation, on the other hand, is an embarrassing representation of an administration that is preventing cohesive international action.

So now we wait. Negotiations will resume soon, and they will vote on the Bali mandate’s language and objectives. Will targets make the cut? I can only hope that the leadership here follows Gore’s advice instead of letting the US obstruct the action that must necessarily be taken in Bali: “You can feel anger and frustration and direct it at the US. Or you can move forward and keep a large blank space in your mandate, saying our mandate is incomplete but we’re moving forward in the hope that it will be filled in by the time we have a treaty in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.” So delegates…please leave that empty space in the Mandate for a new US administration, and keep the strong language, because, in the wise words of Al Gore (again), “We have all we need [to change the shape of the world] except political will. And that’s a renewable resource.”

The one thing I have really learned to appreciate during this process at Bali is the importance of a country’s leaders. The leaders alone make the decisions here. Despite help and advice from NGO’s and youth, it is the leaders who decide whether to send a delegation with a constructive message, the leaders who choose to partner with other countries, or the leaders who choose to completely impede progress. It is imperative to have good national leadership to make progress at these international negotiations.
The world cannot handle anymore leaders who are not going to work for climate change mitigation, and I can’t handle another leader who is willing to be so wholly destructive during international attempts to unite in the face of a global challenge. So, what next? Vote? That just isn’t enough. A good point was made to me today. If I want to see improved leadership in the White House come 2008, I need to be willing to work for it beyond just voting. Candidates need to be supported by volunteers who canvass, fundraise, and dedicate their time to working toward getting them elected.
It is imperative that we have domestic support for any international initiative we undertake, and what better way to do that then have a strong national leader? When we met with the US delegation last week, their argument against our views was that foreign policy follows domestic policy. It sounds like an excuse at first, but it is a bitter pill that we will have to swallow. So we need to get someone in office who will support domestic action, in a way that will facilitate the US getting involved at an international scale. I encourage youth everywhere, a powerful demographic in terms of initiating change, to support whichever candidate you want to see in office. If you want to see change, act for it.

Despite public promises and mass media mobilization around the new global leadership of the United States to fight climate change, announced by George W. Bush in June, the US has come to Bali with the same attitude and lack of consensus building that they have used for the past eight years. “I am […] committing the United States of America to work within the United Nations framework and elsewhere to develop with our friends and allies and nations throughout the world an effective and science-based response to the issue of global warming,” stated President Bush this past June. But such rhetoric is dishonest in the face of US actions taken at the COP.
Yesterday, the US delegation tried to remove language on the ranges of emissions reductions for industrialized countries for 2020, as well as language calling for a peaking of global emissions in 10-15 years. They have also used their “leadership role on the issue of climate change” to block a consensus on technology transfer that was headed to the larger negotiations. These actions are demonstrations of the US impeding negotiations with their own interests in mind. The US’s new leadership on climate change is a fraud.
Even targets based on Nobel-prize winning science of the IPCC have been criticized by the US delegation. On Monday they claimed that the 25-40% cuts by 2020 are “totally unrealistic for many countries.” This position is inconsistent with the positive leadership promised by President Bush and the US delegation. However, it does bring to light the US’s absurd position on India and China. Correctly, many developing countries cannot immediately meet these targets. So why is the world’s leading economy waiting for them to take the first step? A global leader should recognize these common but differentiated responsibilities and step up to adequate targets for the leading producer of greenhouse gases.

At an early meeting of the Youth Caucus at COP13, someone mentioned the need to respect the UN process. We had to make sure that the demonstrations that were taking place didn’t mention disrespect for the UNFCCC.

It hadn’t really occurred to me before; I never saw a reason to not value the process by which the delegates were gathering, negotiating, and making decisions.

But after a full week of attending plenary sessions and contact groups I can see why the process can be frustrating.

I sat in a session about Carbon Capture and Storage last Thursday that exemplified the kind of frustration I think they were referring to. After 45 minutes of discussing how the discussion should take place, the facilitator noted that time was up and dismissed the meeting. Seriously? I was reasonably appalled at the productivity with which such an important part of the global conference was conducted.

I live on an island in the Florida Keys that is approximately one meter above sea level; a characteristic that puts us in a vulnerable position for the frequent hurricanes that rip through the Caribbean and also for climate change; a few inches of ocean level rising could inundate my home.

Not only that, but the island economy is based on the coral reef. We’ve already experienced extreme coral bleaching as the water warms around the island, impacting the livelihood of divers, fish collectors, the tourism industry, and fisherman. When it comes to protecting my home from climate change, there is no room for inefficiency. Action must be taken now if it is going to be saved from the affects of the warming global climate.

Continue reading ‘BaliBuzz: A Call for Urgency: No More Time for Inefficiency’