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Bali climate deal marks a geopolitical shift
Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Developing countries flexed their muscles in unprecedented ways at the climate talks, suggesting the old north-south power equation is changing.
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…the big shift has come from developing countries, known collectively as “the G-77 plus China.”
Led by China, South Africa, Brazil, and other rainforest-heavy countries, the group is beginning to flex its muscles in ways observers here have not seen before.
In the past, analysts say, industrial countries cut the deals and essentially presented developing countries with the results. No longer. Nowhere was the change more apparent than on the unplanned 13th day of the conference.
At issue was wording on adaptation, technology transfer, and financing. Developing countries offered text changes that the US had opposed throughout the talks on the floor of the final plenary session.
When the head of the US negotiating team, Paula Dobriansky, took the floor, she said the US couldn’t support the change. Since decisions here must be made by consensus, it looked as if the US would derail the process.
Developing countries were already fuming that, due to US insistence, the road map was confining scientific recommendations on necessary emission cuts by industrial countries to a footnote.
They also took umbrage at a comment made by a senior member of the US delegation at a press briefing Wednesday. James Connaughton, head of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, told reporters that “the US will lead” on global climate change, “but leadership requires that others fall in line and follow.”
Dr. Dobriansky’s “no” met with a chorus of boos. Other developing countries took the floor to support the change and roundly criticize the US.
South Africa said that the US position “was most unwelcome and without any basis.” Then Kevin Conrad, who headed Papua-New Guinea’s delegation, rose and turned Mr. Connaughton’s comment on its head.
“We seek your leadership,” he said. “But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”
Meanwhile, Europe threw its support behind the change. Japan remained noncommittal. Canada and Australia, which ratified the Kyoto treaty earlier this month, sat silent. The last three had supported the US position for much of the talks.
Confronted with the prospect of overwhelming isolation, Dobriansky relented, saying, “We will join the consensus.”
(17 December 2007)
Related:
Bali climate deal keeps world at table (LA Times)
We’ve been suckered again by the US. So far the Bali deal is worse than Kyoto (George Monbiot, Guardian)
Back from the brink
John Vidal, Guardian
Governments finally agreed in Bali to work together to combat climate change, but challenges created by the rise of Homo urbanus rule out complacency.
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How did the human race get on in 2007? On an evolutionary level, you could argue the species had a fabulously successful year. It increased its numbers by more than 80 million people, dominated all other lifeforms, and suffered no major setbacks. Most of its 6.5bn members lived longer than they could have expected only 30 years ago, moved around and traded with each other more than ever, and mostly survived whatever the natural world chucked at them.
But history will look back on 2007 and see a species in transition. In the next few months, the UN will declare that we have transmuted to an urban species, with more people in cities than the countryside. Only 100 years ago, nearly all humanity was made up of people who worked and lived close to where they grew or collected food, and who adapted their lives to the resources they had to hand. Homo sapiens – or urbanus – is now increasingly grouping together and engineering environments for its sole use.
“The world’s urban map is being redrawn,” David Satterthwaite, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development, declared in October. Africa has a larger urban population than North America with 25 of the world’s fastest-growing large cities. Half of the world’s urban population in 2007 lived in Asia, and Europe’s share of the world’s 100 largest cities has fallen from more than half to less than 10% in the last century. It now has none of the world’s 100 fastest-growing cities.
But 2007 will also be remembered as the year that climate change rose up the international agenda. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel peace prize and warned that if left unchecked, the world’s average temperature could rise as much as 6C by the end of the century, killing hundreds of millions of people, destroying economies and changing all life.
World governments finally agreed in Bali to work together to try to stave off the worst effects. But in fraught negotiations that concluded last week, the US, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, tried to wreck the talks, was humiliated, then finally signed up reluctantly to work towards a post Kyoto treaty.
The road to Copenhagen, where the concluding talks will be held in 2009, will be tortuous.
(19 December 2007)
Carnegie Endowment’s Bill Chandler assesses China’s performance at Bali talks (video and transcript)
Monica Trauzzi, E&E TV
One of the main issues facing the international community as it tries to create a post-2012 climate policy is how to engage developing economies like China and India. But how is China addressing climate and energy within its own borders?
During today’s OnPoint, William Chandler, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains the disparity that exists between local and national governments in China when it comes to enforcing clean energy standards.
Chandler, author of the new report, “Financing Energy Efficiency in China,” explains why the Clean Development Mechanism is not working in China and lays out clean energy priorities for both the Chinese government and the international community.
(17 December 2007)
