LRQA COP16 Blog, Day 9 – It’s quiet…too quiet’
13th December 2010 by Andy Ritchie
By Andrew Ritchie, Climate Change Services Manager, LRQA
Follow LRQA on Twitter @LRQA_CC_CSR
I never thought I’d find myself drawing parallels between COP 16 here in Cancun and Shrek (and probably a host of other films), but the clichéd line, ‘It’s quiet…too quiet’ seems particularly apt as a description of Day 9. Is it the calm before the storm? Is it indicative of everyone drawing breath before the final push towards some kind (any kind) of agreement? It is difficult to tell. One thing is for certain, however, the whole event has an air about it that could be construed either as one of dark trepidation or hopeful expectation, depending on your natural disposition.
All of that, however, did not prevent me from making the most of the day.
After a relatively uneventful BINGO session at the Messe, I travelled to the Moon Palace with the intention of sitting in on the contact group on issues relating to the clean development mechanism. Unfortunately, this particular session was cancelled, a turn of events that was initially disappointing but which, with hindsight, was fortuitous because it provided me with the opportunity to sit in on the President of Mexico’s dialogue session, ‘The struggle against climate change, what should our legacy be?’
Whatever frustrations any of us may feel at the apparent failure of the Cancun negotiations to reach any substantive agreement on binding targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it is clear that those frustrations are nothing when compared to those of the people of Kiribati. In an impassioned speech delivered as part of that session (which is certainly worth watching as an on-demand webcast at http://webcast.cc2010.mx/webmedia_en.html?id=245), the President of the Republic of Kiribati, Anote Tong, left everyone present under no illusions of the immediacy of the problems that climate change presented to his country and its citizens. ‘Kiribati,’ he said, ‘may not be with you for the next decade.’ He openly criticised the fact that money promised by nations who signed the Copenhagen Accord had not materialised, preventing his government from making much needed investment in coastal protection. His address was, in my humble opinion, a timely reminder to all of us of the fact that whilst for most of those involved in these negotiations, another year’s delay will have minimal short-term impact on their citizens and their economies, that is not the case for some. As President Tonge so eloquently made clear, every year that passes without either agreement on actions to stabilise emissions or on how the means by which the financial support so desperately needed by those most vulnerable of countries can be organised, brings closer the time when low lying island states of the world, including Kiribati, will no longer physically exist.
Indeed, it is a somewhat sobering thought that, even if it were possible to minimise global temperature rises to less than 1.5oC, the resultant sea-level rises associated with such a rise would still be too much for the state of Kiribati to cope with. Perhaps, if all those charged with reaching a workable agreement here in Cancun were told that, if they failed to do so, their homes would be flooded within a decade and they and their children would be left without a nation to call their own, they may be more willing to compromise and more motivated to reach a workable solution.
Who knows?
What the Kiribati President’s comments, and those of others at the dialogue session, highlighted is the heavy human price that climate change will exact, and that that price will almost certainly be paid by those who are both the least willing to afford it, and also the least culpable in requiring a price to be paid in the first place. Two further side events back a Messe filled the remainder of my day.
The first, entitled ‘Regional approaches for climate change adaptation in mountain areas – sharing the experience’, I visited under the somewhat tenuous pretext of liking mountains, and in so doing was rewarded with a particularly informative overview of the role of the Himalayan Hindu Kush in south-east Asia and the potentially enormous impacts on the lives of millions that could result from climate change induced changes in this fragile ecosystem.
I also heard for the first time the excellent acronym GLOF (the somewhat ominous sounding Glacial Lake Outburst Flood).
The second event, entitled ‘Shipping and combating climate change’ was an interesting, if poorly attended session providing an overview of the efforts already made by the shipping industry to curb their greenhouse emissions, and those which are likely to come into force in the next twelve months. A key message from all the panellists here was the need for IMO to be the vehicle for managing the GHG reduction efforts within the shipping industry.
And what of tomorrow?
There is still a part of me that remains hopeful that my final blog from Cancun will be of a far more positive nature than those which have preceded it, and that the negotiations are able to provide us with some glimmer of hope that Durban will buck a worrying trend of failure that the recent COPs at Copenhagen and Cancun appear to have started.
Andy’s Mexican Fact of the Day
Origins of the name ‘Mexico’ are apparently uncertain. It is suggested that, on gaining independence from Spain, the decision was taken to name the country after its capital, Mexico City, which was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Aztec capital of México-Tenochtitlan. Whilst it is generally agreed that this name comes from the Nahuatl language, its meaning is not known, though it has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli. If this is correct, then Mexico means ‘place where Mēxihtli lives’.
Andy’s Thought for the Day
Fashion – good and bad. Another fetching shirt from the wardrobe of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. A particularly splendid tie from Marcus Stephen, President of Nauru. And, oh dear, someone committing the ultimate fashion faux-pas of wearing socks with sandals!
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Andy Ritchie is the Group Environmental Products Manager for the