Tag: Cancun

8 December 2010

Cancun, Mexico – Japan earned a 1st place Fossil for its continued efforts to kill the
Kyoto Protocol by preventing a second commitment period from moving forward.
The United States, fresh off its first, and 1st place, Fossil in Cancun yesterday, earned
its first 2nd and 3rd place Fossils for slowing technology transfer and developing
country adaptation support.

The Fossils as presented read:
"The United States wins the 3rd place Fossil. Congratulations US - Technology
transfer has been a core commitment since the beginning of the Convention, and
we’ve already wasted too much time discussing how to do it. A workable proposal is
finally on the table and everyone else is willing to go with it and establish the new
technology mechanism here in Cancun. But yesterday, you made it clear that in your
view, the Parties should only ‘consider’ establishing it.

That’s strange, given that the Copenhagen Accord clearly states that leaders agreed to
‘establish a Technology Mechanism’, ‘operational immediately’. We are surprised
you are going back behind what heads of state already agreed to and try to renegotiate
a deal struck a deal struck among world leaders. For the last year, most parties in the
technology negotiations have been working hard to answer the remaining questions
and a lot of progress was made in Cancun. While everyone else is being flexible, your
obstructionism is blocking any progress.

The US championed the need for a technology center and network and you are
developing some regional center pilots, so why the heartburn on the proposal on the
table? Concerns by US clean tech companies about being under a burdensome and
bureaucratic UN body are misinformed; what our warming world needs is precisely
what a multilateral mechanism can deliver: coordinated planning and implementation
to speed-up and scale-up the what poor countries and communities need to transition
quickly to a low-emissions future."

"The USA wins the 2nd place Fossil for delaying agreement on the establishment of
an Adaptation Committee, which is demanded by developing countries to improve
coherence and coordination of adaptation under the Convention. The US continues to
insist on clarification of the functions and asked in Cancun whether this could not be
dealt with under SBSTA, an approach which they had rejected some years ago when
it was on the SBSTA agenda. The Convention process requires a dedicated
institutional arrangement on adaptation which can initiate further action, not limited to
technical advice. This function cannot be fulfilled by existing institutions outside the
Convention."

"The 1st place Fossil goes to Japan. Although the Minister arrived on Sunday, Japan
has not yet changed its position of rejecting to put its target for the second
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which virtually kills the future of the
Kyoto Protocol. Despite the plea from all around the world, even in the midst of the
isolation (with hidden allies consisting of Russia and Canada), Japan's inflexibility
endangers the whole discussion of the future framework at CANCUN, which the earth
desperately needs."

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About CAN: The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of roughly 500
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and
individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable
levels. www.climatenetwork.org

About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate
talks in 1999  in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations
climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action
Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress
in the negotiations in the last days of talks.

Cancun, Mexico – Canada once again took the 1 place Fossil of the Day today at the United Nations climate negotiations, this time for calling the idea that the biggest polluters should take on the biggest pollution reductions a “side car” issue. This is Canada’s sixth Fossil in Cancun. Papua New Guinea won its first Fossil, coming in 2nd place, for watering down environmental and social safeguards in a potential REDD forest protection agreement. The United States earned a Fossil for the third day in a row, this time for blocking progress on a host of issues unless developing countries
took on more commitments.

On a positive note, a large bloc of the countries most harmed by climate change impacts, especially sea level rise, earned the firs Ray of the Day at the Cancun negotiations for putting the reference to the safe upper limit to temperature rise, 1.5° Celsius, back in the negotiating text.

The Fossils and Ray of the Day, as presented, read:

“The United States of America wins the 3rd place Fossil. UK weather forecasts warn that Christmas could be canceled due to a once-in-a-lifetime cold front coming from the North, but it seems a similar cold front has already arrived from Washington. US officials indicated today that they won’t allow movement on adaptation, capacity building or technology until developing countries move more on MRV and Mitigation to keep them happy. Throwing up such roadblocks to progress is at odds with what Ambassador Stern said himself, 'Let's not do nothing...Let's not be hung up for year after year after year.'

Yet nothing but blocking and blaming appears to be all that the world may get from the US here in Cancun. The deal back in Bali agreed by the previous US President, George W. Bush, was that the US would cut its emissions and provide finance and technology. In fact, that’s pretty much the deal agreed to almost two decades ago by his father!

The world expects even more from President Obama, who only a year ago was
awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his potential to contribute to multilateral
cooperation, including cooperation on climate.

No one wants to give another lump of coal to the country we all need for a truly global climate solution. So let’s make this the last one we ever give to the US and use it to fire up their delegation to put the 'Yes We Can' into Cancun!"

"Papua New Guinea earns the 2nd place Fossil. In their desperation to get a REDD agreement at all costs, Parties have been pushing for weaker and weaker text almost on a daily basis. The implementation of the social, environmental and governance safeguards is just about at rock bottom. Some countries want no mechanism that would guarantee compliance, and instead proposed a weak system to 'monitor and inform' how the safeguards are addressed, but for PNG, even that was too strong!

PNG has now proposed to weaken the text even further to simply establish a process to only share information - with no actual obligation to do so. And we all know how poor PNG is at sharing information. We must ask - share with who? Themselves perhaps! We hope our friends in PNG will share with the world what's going on behind the scenes in their country especially with carbon cowboys riding into town stealing local peoples land and rights. So for that clanger, a fossil to PNG."

“The 1st place Fossil goes to Canada. In a briefing with journalists this morning, Canada’s environment minister dismissed the principle of historical responsibility as a ‘sidecar’ issue.

That’s a pretty convenient stance for a country in the top tier of cumulative
greenhouse gas emitters. But maybe it’s not surprising that Canada considers
historical responsibility as nothing more than a distracting side issue — after all, this is the same government that decided Kyoto targets were optional.

With that kind of attitude, it’s not surprising that the rest of world has started to consider Canada a ‘sidecar’ country. And Canada’s current government seems to be more concerned about getting oil into the tank than about the safety of the passengers.”

"The Alliance of Small Island States, Small Island Developing States, and Least Developed Countries win the first Ray of the Day in Cancun, and what a bright one it is! Returning the reference to 1.5 degrees C in the Shared Vision text is crucial for shining some light on the line between survival and destruction for some nations. For keeping our attention, and the text, on what matters most, AOSIS, the SIDS, and the LDCs earn a Ray of the Day."
_____________________________________________________________________
About CAN: The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of roughly 500
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and
individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org

About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999 in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks. The Ray of the Day, a newer award, honors countries that have done something exceptional to move the negotiations forward.