Up Until This Point…

Up until this point, the negotiations seemed to be going like always, lots of prepared speeches, expressed opinions, frequent rebuttals, and the like. The youth at the conference, or YOUNGOs as we call ourselves, have been meeting everyday to brief each other on what is going on at the meetings, what to expect, who is likely to hold negotiations back, etc. Since we are an actual delegation now, we have a seat at the negotiations and the other day our representatives got the opportunity to address all the delegates at a COP meeting. That is basically amazing. We even dropped in (or perhaps interrupted) a climate skeptics talk with some banners and chants on how clean energy creates jobs and how this is now an energy revolution. O and did I mention it was a live broadcast? Pretty cool stuff.

But what is even more interesting, and perhaps a little frightening, is what has been actually happening at the plenary sessions since Tuvalu declared a suspension of the COP. The answer is, well, nothing. Thursdays plenary session was originally when Kazakhstan was to give their two cents, like Tuvalu had done before, about their provisions to the Kyoto Protocol. But it seemed the same set of occurrences followed. There was much debate coming from all sides, from India and China holding tight to Kyoto, some small nations looking for Kyoto to have some changes, and European countries just wanting a legally binding agreement.

Since the suspension and the endless debate on virtually nothing, the NGOs have spent hours waiting in the plenary room for hours, making sure we could get a seat for the next plenary session, but it seems this morning when we tried to sit down to listen to the meeting, to our surprise, we were told to leave and told that it is a closed session. Great. This makes us all even more nervous. Hedegaard pulled select delegates into the closed meeting yesterday and we will supposedly see some form of decision about where to go next by tomorrow. Supposedly, the nations are to have some form of draft by tomorrow. But with the, what looks like, secrecy regarding these sessions, I just don’t see that happening. We are halfway through the conference and have yet to see any solid progress come out. The contact groups have not even been able to discuss anything because Hedegaard canceled all contact group meetings until she and the delegates came out of the closed meetings.

Tomorrow will be an interesting and stimulating day, I am sure, which makes me happy that we are leaving Sunday and not Saturday like I thought. The IC delegation has some unnamed sources that say the delegates will for sure have some form of a commitment treaty, less than 10 pages long, by the end of the two weeks. And a number of people we question about it say the same. I am of course hopeful in every way that that some form of solid commitment will occur, but if it is to happen, the delegates are going to have to work diligently through this next week to make sure of that. All nations have their own interests in mind, like I have said time and time again, but this is the time to understand how drastic this issue is. As I heard in one of my side events the other day, this is not an issue that is happening “over there,” it is happening here. Let’s get it done.

Until tomorrow…

Day 3 at COP15

Just when I thought nothing could top my meeting with the NZed delegation, I came upon Wednesday and all that the day had to offer. After getting to the conference center early and helping to set up the booth, a few of us headed over to the Plenary session. The room was packed with observers and press, sitting on the floor, on random barriers in the room, standing, basically everywhere! The plenary bouncer even had to turn tons of people away. Clearly this is a huge deal.

When we went into the session, believing it to be the scheduled Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, or CMP, we were shocked to find that the regular Conference of the parties meeting, or COP, was still in the heat of debate. And boy, what a debate it was. The small island nation of Tuvalu, the fourth smallest island in the world, proposed a number of provisions to the original climate treaty, asking for more strict climate measures. Bigger non-Annex 1 countries, like India and China, responded at the session saying that no such provisions are necessary and stating that creating a new treaty was in now way a necessary action. Tuvalu went back and forth with the nations, clarifying that their provisions, are only provisions, not an entirely new treaty, and agree that no new treaty needs to be made. What I found interesting was that those non-Annex 1 countries continued saying that no new provisions should be made to the treaty when sections of the treaty have not even been implemented yet. Other island nations voiced their support of Tuvalu in rebuttal.

The debate went back and forth for another two hours, well over time of the COP Plenary session, and cutting into the time of the CMP session. Tuvalu called for a contact group to be created, so that the issue could be formally discussed, after which those same non-Annex 1 countries voiced that no such group should be made and that consultations should be done instead, bringing about another new debate. Finally, COP15 president, Connie Hedegaard chimed in deciding that she would consult about whether or not to create the contact group. The room let out a gasp as Tuvalu expressed their concerns that it was too important an issue to them and therefore requested a suspension of the COP until a decision could be made.

Hedegaard said she would hold the decision off until 3 p.m. During the two-hour waiting period for a decision, Tuvalu and small island nation supporters gathered outside the plenary doors with banners saying “Tuvalu is the REAL DEAL,” “Stand with Tuvalu” and “Rich countries pay your debt,” and chanting things like “Survival!” and “Tuvalu!” When the time came, it was in the middle of the late CMP session but Hedegaard paused the session to make the announcement that no decision had yet been made.

It was a really exciting day, making the rest of the day seem somewhat of a blur. But what happened later that evening, with a few banners, a delegation of youth, and a lot of enthusiasm, was one I, and many, will not forget.