Russia Wins Disastrous Diplomacy Dishonorable Distinction (4D) Award
Submitted by Secretariat on
Russia continues to break new ground here in Bonn, and not in a good way. CAN has issued Colossal Fossils before to countries that richly deserved it, but never before has one country monopolized the fossil awards the way Russia has this session. For this reason, CAN is giving Russia special recognition with the Disastrous Diplomacy Dishonorable Distinction (4D) Award. Never before has the agenda and work of an entire Subsidiary Body of the UNFCCC has been held hostage to the whims of one country, or more likely one negotiator. Russia claims they want to discuss the rules of procedure here at the UNFCCC yet they rejected all solutions that offered to do so. So the mystery of their continued blocking (with Belarus and Ukraine continuing to go along for the ride) around such a political issue remains. If they do want to make a political statement this should be done between Ministers in a Ministerial meeting, not at the negotiator level. Disconcertingly, all this it remains unresolved, and it is not clear whether Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will continue to disrupt progress during the COP in Warsaw, when we desperately need to focus on getting emissions down, and finance up. We say out of the way at Warsaw, Russia.
“Today's Fossil is awarded to Russia for blocking the start of the SBI through trying to alter the agenda. In Doha, Parties made progress on improving the environmental integrity of the Kyoto Protocol by getting rid of some of the hot air in the system. Yet, now Russia – who is not even a Party to the second commitment period of the Protocol – is all bent out of shape about how the decision was taken. Of course, having matters being formally adopted and adhering to the rules of procedure are very important elements in this process, however blocking the work of the SBI for two days is not the way to have this matter is resolved. There has been an item on the COP agenda dealing with proposals regarding the rules of procedure for the past two years. The SBI agenda is full of pressing issues that could also yield real emission reductions – like reforming JI and the CDM to ensure additionality or reviewing the adequacy of the long-term goal. So Russia why don't you use that super power of yours to get the SBI back on track?!"
