Or Action. Or Ambition. Or Admirable. Or.. well anything positive as far as I’m concerned.
The UN Climate Talks are approaching being the longest in history as we await the re-opening of the negotiations at 11pm in Lima. The spark seems to have left and the fear of having a “deal” that doesn’t take into account the rights of people already impacted by climate change is looming over the whole conference center. Unless something drastic happens in the next 24 hours, this COP will do more than fail. It will lead to a dramatic step backwards in addressing climate change in a fair and equitable way.
I’m running on less than 4 hours of sleep after having stayed at the conference space until almost 4am to watch a new draft proposal of the Durban Platform on Enhanced Action (ADP) being unleashed. Yes, unleashed, not revealed or unveiled. The draft was essentially written without the consent of parties other than those in the “Umbrella group” which can lovingly be defined as the stallers of progress… or:
The Umbrella Group A loose coalition of non-EU developed countries which formed following the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. There is no formal list, but the Group is usually made up of Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the US. The Umbrella Group evolved from the JUSSCANNZ (an acronym for Japan, the USA, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Norway and New Zealand) group, which was active during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations.
Rihanna would definitely not want to take part in any of these groups despite her affection for umbrellas.
In the past week the United States has made one thing very clear: they do not want to be held accountable for Climate Change nor do they want to contribute what they are historically obligated to.
Our lead negotiator has said “I’m not a human rights man” when asked questions about equity, “We, the US, believe that Fair and Equitable mean the same thing so we would want to use one or the other. We prefer the use of Fair” in the more recent negotiations, and quite simply that “Climate Change is not the responsibility of just one country”.
As I sit here in the venue on what we all hope will be the last night of the COP, I’m stuck thinking of just how much this conference is smoke and mirrors. The draft ADP text, the deal that is supposed to emerge from Paris, is being written in a non-transparent manner and all vulnerable countries are crying foul. This can’t be real. How can a country that has been priding itself on being “ambitious” be the one keeping any action from happening?
Being from the US, I wish that I could make our negotiators understand that we have a historic responsibility that extends beyond our “historic emissions”. Our historical responsibility lies in the very existence of our “democracy” and the capitalist economy that continues the world’s development in the interest of the richest 1% and proceeds to steal the land of indigenous peoples everywhere while exploiting natural resources and polluting those that remain. The US has a historical responsibility for its oppression and hegemony that has hurled the world towards a 4 degree future, well beyond the limit defined by the best science.
The United States has to recognize and act on their responsibility to the world. Perhaps cutting fossil fuel subsidies and war spending might make it easier to follow through, huh?
Climate Feminist 