Thursday 29 November (4 days to go)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:08:00 GMT

Rarely have ‘talks about talks’ been so crucial. Next week in the tourist resort of Bali, Indonesia, the world’s nations – rich and poor - convene for two weeks of tortuous make-or-break climate change negotiations. The aim is to put the breaks on global temperature rise in the future and head off cataclysmic predictions from scientists of collapsing ice sheets, more intense disasters and flooding coastlines around the world. Added urgency is created by the need to agree a timetable for negotiations for emissions cuts after 2012, when the current Kyoto Protocol emissions cut commitments by industrialised countries comes to an end. Ultimately Tearfund and other UK agencies are urging the global community to adopt far deeper cuts in emissions for industrialised countries than the 5% agreed under Kyoto (over 1990 levels). Success in the long-term must see at least: • 30% emissions cuts for developed countries by 2020• 50% globally by 2050• 80% for developed countries by 2050 That is the hoped-for future. ...

Monday 3 December: 'Governments can set aside self interest' (Day 1)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:05:00 GMT

Sara: One of the most vital moments in global climate change negotiations has finally arrived. In the next fortnight governments from nearly 200 nations must set aside their differences and agree which elements need to be negotiated to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol whose emission reduction targets only last until 2012. For many of us in the West the worst effects of climate change lie in the future, but the world’s poorest people are suffering now. However paltry a goal it might seem, merely achieving a ‘Bali Roadmap’ timetable for negotiating a post-2012 framework would be cause for jubilation. I hope and pray that it is possible here in Bali over the next two weeks. I believe governments can set aside self interested short-termism which sees them horse-trading and waiting for each oth ...

Tuesday 4 December - an emotional moment (day 2)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:31:00 GMT

Sara: Global climate change talks are not generally where you head if you are seeking an emotional moment. But, the first morning of this two-week ‘make or break’ summit in Bali surprisingly produced something passably close to that. Almost at the same time as Australia’s new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, took the oath of office back home in Oz, the Australian lead-negotiator in Bali announced that Australia would “move immediately to ratify the Kyoto Protocol”. For a split second you could have heard a pin drop, and then the gathering of representatives from nearly 200 nations broke into spontaneous and prolonged applause. As the clapping of representatives from the majority of the world’s nations continued beyond the mere politeness of these occasions, one dared to hope - and pray - that maybe, just maybe the Aussies had set a tone that might last at these negotiations.

Wednesday 5 December: 'back down to earth'

website.editor@tearfund.org — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:08:00 GMT

Sara: After the joy of Australia announcing on Monday that it had ratified the Kyoto Protocol after years of snubbing the UN process of binding emissions cuts, it was back down to earth with a thump today… Firstly, we heard that Japan had set the hares running by hinting that it might move away from support for binding targets (one step forward with the Aussies, one step back in prospect with Japan?). And then during one of the main sessions of the day, three hours or more was taken up with delegates wrangling over whether they would adopt a new item onto the meeting agenda! If the lives of poor communities were not at stake in

Friday 7 December (day 5)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:09:53 GMT

Sara: As I mentioned a couple of days ago, these summits can be a roller coaster of ups and downs, with political winds blowing every which way! After Monday’s euphoria when Australia ratified the Kyoto Treaty, questions are now being asked about why – with the political capital up their sleeves – the Aussies are not enthusiastically waving the flag for the widely-accepted proposal here that rich country signatories to Kyoto assent to 25-40 per cent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as part of negotiations towards a post-Kyoto deal. Can their star be waning already?! And then the good news came through! The US Congress has taken a big step (will it ultimately become a giant leap?) towards mandatory climate legislation. A powerful Senate committee this week approved a bill to create binding limits on US greenhouse gas emissions. So we have a bizarre situation in which 25 US states have joined regional plans to cut emissions, US legislation is now in the offing – all of it in stark contrast to the US delegat ...

COP Blog Saturday 8

website.editor@tearfund.org — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:54:55 GMT

Sara: The pace is stepping up a little as we approach the beginning of Week 2 of this crucial summit. While adaptation (helping communities cope with the effects of climate change) is being talked about constantly across the conference halls here, there is so far a worryingly lack of signs that countries want hard commitment to adaptation in the post 2012 agreement that everyone hopes will emerge from this two weeks. We in the lobby team of Tearfund, with partners, have set about our work in the past couple of days with renewed vigour, trying to overcome recent history which has treated adaptation as largely a separate and secondary issue, to that of cutting emissions (mitigation). We are urging negotiators to see mitigation and adaptation as of equal importance. Quite simply, lives depend upon it. As we talk to negotiators from many different countries, we are also pressing into their hands our latest report on adaptation - Adaptation and the Post-2012 Framework. It is proving a very useful means of putt ...

Monday 10 December (day 8)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:06:03 GMT

Sara: UK Environment Minister Hilary Benn arrives in Bali today and we are hoping he makes some bold statements, particularly about the need for strong emissions reductions for all the wealthy countries here. With a Climate Change Bill – the first of its kind in the world – going through Parliament this very week in the UK, the time is surely right. But if the UK itself is to lead the way on climate change, and it has done some good work in the past such as commissioning the hugely-influential Stern Report on the economics of climate change, then our climate change Bill needs to be stronger. Rather than the 60 per cent cuts in UK emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, Gordon Brown’s government could genuinely claim the moral high ground, if a target of at least 80 per cent finds its way into the Bill. As I write, ministers from across the globe are beginning to arrive for the final tough-talking sessions over the next four days. It may be 35 degrees here in Bali, but that will be more than matched by the ri ...

Tuesday 11 December (Day 9)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:03:31 GMT

Sara: Last night I was invited onto the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, small parts of which were even from the original ship infamously sunk in Auckland harbour. Stepping on board reminded me of the birth of environmentalism, when Greenpeace activists and other so-called ‘greens’ were determined to raise widespread consciousness about environmental issues such as whaling and deforestation. And here we are decades years later anchored close to where 13,000 people from 190 countries are negotiating how best to save the planet from a potentially catastrophic environmental threat. How I needed some of that early-environmentalist spirit today as we lobbied in response to yet more intransigence from the USA. Inevitably, any global agreement comes down to detailed text and today some crucial text was opposed by the USA. They want to remove reference to ‘sufficient, predictable, additional and sustainable’ funding for vulnerable countries affected by climate change. In short, this means the US approach could ...

Wednesday 12 December (Day 10)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:06:33 GMT

Sara: Woke up this morning with a sore throat and a cough. Hard to believe in this weather, but then we are constantly scooting from air conditioned meeting rooms, out into 35 degree heat (and there is much debate among delegates about the rights/wrongs of this air conditioning - and the likely damaging HFCs that result). The 144 ministers from around the world have been starting their addresses today. However, many of the past weeks negotiations are continuing behind closed doors in what they call ínformals’. And we in the lobbying team still have a big job to do. At 2am this morning one of the negotiating sessions broke down while discussing the issue of the transfer of clean technology to the developing world. The breakdown shocked many of the delegates and was apparently due to countries using the agenda to push their own interests. We are also still seeking the latest information on whether crucial text on financing for poor countries to adapt to climate change has survived after the Americans ...

COP Blog Dec 13

website.editor@tearfund.org — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:08:15 GMT

Sara: I am heading back to the UK later today. I will be sad to miss the last full day of this hopefully historic negotiation in Bali. As I prepare to leave I am a little more hopeful of a positive outcome than I was two days ago. This morning’s news from the negotiating chambers dotted around this massive complex was much-improved. Positive proposals to help poor countries adapt to climate change were back. However, as we know, all this can start to unravel in the blink of an eye. For example, the US is still playing games that could yet derail real progress. On the issue of the transfer of clean technology to the developing world, they are refusing to consider some way round intellectual property rights for this technology, much of which would presumably come from the US private sector (this echoes the long battle to get anti-retroviral drugs to Africa). There is also widespread concern here that the US is attempting to undermine the UN process in favour of its own Major Economies Meeting. Meanwhile n ...

Sunday 16 December (back home)

website.editor@tearfund.org — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:44:32 GMT

Sara: Well they don’t get much more nail-biting than this. Back in freezing London on Friday, I went to bed knowing that the talks in Bali were running well over, that the USA were still trying to deny the need for commitments to strong emissions reductions of 25%-40% by 2020, and that there was a real chance of these talks failing. By the time I awoke on Saturday, the talks had overrun by more than 12 hours, exhausted negotiators had been locked in rooms for much of the night, tears (of frustration/exhaustion?) had been shed by the UN climate chief Yvo De Boer, and a rather un-diplomatic (but in my view well-deserved) outburst of booing had shamed the Bush negotiating team to back down. When it finally came and the USA agreed to ‘Bali road map’, everyone stood to applaud. So, despite the continuing absence of specified targets, there is now at least a clear agenda for two years more of talked aimed at negotiating a successor to the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This quest for global co ...

Tearfund blog from COP 13