Stephanie Long, Montreal
From November 28 to December 9, more than 170 countries are engaging in negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To date, 157 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which mandates emissions reduction targets. The US and Australia remain the only industrialised countries that haven't signed.
However, beyond the diplomatic halls of the Palaise des Congres in Montreal, climate change remains a threatening reality for many peoples across the world. Most notably, the Carteret Islanders of the Pacific have already lost their battle to stay on their islands and will be relocated by the Papua New Guinean government to neighbouring Bougainville. This is the first instance of an entire cultural group forcibly displaced by climate change. It could be the beginning of millions of people displaced each year because of climate change by 2050, according to Oxford University scholar Norman Myers.
There is increasing evidence that climate change is affecting the lives and livelihoods of the world's poor. Reports such as Up in Smoke and the annual International Red Cross World Disasters Report detail the impact of drought, rising sea levels, extreme weather events and increasing temperatures on the ability of peoples across the world to attain food and water security. The outcomes of the international negotiations significantly determine the response afforded to these vulnerable peoples.
Friends of the Earth believes that the two major issues for the Montreal conference are negotiations on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which begins in 2012, and negotiations on the adaptation programs. The least developed countries and small island developing states are becoming increasingly critical of the lack of action on adaptation, despite the convention's clear direction for support for the most vulnerable countries with funds and technology from the developing countries in recognition of their greater responsibility for global climate change.
Throughout the first week of negotiations, some countries demonstrated their positions. The US consistently stated in plenaries and media statements that it is not negotiating post-2012. The European Union and Canada have presented carefully worded statements on meeting everyone's concerns while still progressing international action on climate change, to avoiding putting the US off-side.
Saudi Arabia has used every opportunity to request "economic compensation" or "response measures" for oil-dependent economies. This is supported by Kuwait and Nigeria, and historically has provided a wedge in the G77 ("group of 77" developing countries) and China, the majority of which do not have large fossil-dependent economies and generally are wanting to see developing countries take stringent mitigation commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada has placed a great deal of face on these meetings being successful and together with the EU has declared it is prepared to accept further commitments. The key sticking point is whether these negotiations will occur under the Kyoto Protocol, which means mandatory binding targets for emission reductions, or under the convention, which could look like almost anything that the parties agree to. Due to the US's continual assertion that it won't negotiate post-2012, under either the convention or the protocol, the NGO community, including Friends of the Earth, wants to see these negotiations happen under the protocol so that a strong agreement is made that demands countries comply with their commitments.
There are minimal funds handed over to the four adaptation funds, three of which are based on voluntary contributions. Australia has not contributed any money to these funds. Additionally, the adaptation funds have only been used for "vulnerability assessment" studies, rather than on-the-ground projects that assist communities. The least developed countries and the small island developing states are extremely vocal about the urgent requirement for adaptation funds and for prioritising pilot projects that assist the most vulnerable communities already experiencing the impact of climate change.
It is easy to see that these international negotiations are all talk and no action. The meetings go for hours, as delegates debate each word and phrase of text that is proposed. Climate change is an urgent international development, humanitarian and environmental problem. As such, it requires an international response. Whatever the Australian mainstream media would have you believe: Kyoto is not dead.
[Stephanie Long is a member of Friends of the Earth Australia.]
From Green Left Weekly, December 7, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.