“If you cannot lead…get out of the way.”
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Posted on December 15, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Ooo, it got a little nasty over there in Bali. Folks around the world got a bit perturbed with our indomitable negotiating team.
Participants say they’ve never seen anything like it at a UN conference.
We were booed. We were booed roundly, loudly, by the international community.
It happened when, after 2 weeks of soul-wrenching, gut-wringing, even tear-inducing work, the US rejected the compromise Bali declaration setting the agenda for a two-year negotiating process to come up with an international treaty to combat global warming.
I mean, we’re not just talking here about big industrial powers either. Here’s how Kevin Conrad, Papua New Guinea’s ambassador for climate change, scolded the U.S. of A.
If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Get out of the way.
Oooo, ouch. This country is not used to being scolded that way by uppity smaller nations.
Good for the ambassador from New Guinea. These people deserved it, from Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky to James Connaughton, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Harlan Watson, our ’special’ climate negotiator. Special, indeed. They embarrassed all of us.
I will leave here two links to stories with some of the same info about how Bali concluded, but with rather different tones. One is posted on the Washington Post website today: Nations forge pact on global warming, climate change. The other is from the BBC: U.S. sets terms for climate talks.
Unquestionably, the nations gathered in Bali blinked in the face of US rejection of carbon reduction targets. We have ‘goals’ in the language of the declaration instead. The words that were cut from the final document were those that would have committed the industrialized world to 25-40 percent reductions in emissions by 2020.
The US also insisted that developing nations must bear their share of the burden of cutting emissions. This, of course, is not unreasonable as long as the rich nations are prepared to put up the financing for these countries to come up with alternative energy sources for development that is ecologically sustainable.
Despite the major compromise, the Bush administration actually signed on to a document that acknowledges that global climate change is a clear and urgent threat and that, as the document says, “deep cuts in global emissions will be required”. That it also agreed to help with financing new technologies in developing countries is also noteworthy.
But, folks, we still need more than goals; we need clear, verifiable, targets that are mandatory and enforceable. Nothing else will come anywhere close to getting nations and industries to do what is required to stave off the worst climate disasters — and we are facing so many already.
But this needs to be reported: the US was not willing to sign on to the compromise language until it was shamed into doing so. This from a different version of the BBC story above, which you can read here:
With delegates anxious to make a deal and catch aeroplanes home, the US delegation announced it could not support the amended text.
A chorus of boos rang out. And a member of Papua New Guinea’s delegation told the US: “If you’re not willing to lead, please get out of the way.”
Shortly after, the US delegation announced it would support the revised text after all.
There were a number of emotional moments in the conference hall - the UN’s top climate official Yvo de Boer in tears after being accused by China of procedural irregularities, and cheers and hugs when the US indicated its acceptance.
Given this sorry display from the US, what happened in Bali is significant. There were moments when UN officials feared the whole process would break down. Instead, 187 nations emerged with a consensus document that carves out a path for negotiations on a post-Kyoto pact, which expires in 2012. Countries will meet again in Copenhagen next year, with the goal of having an agreement in place by 2009.
It is a noteworthy year, a year when there will be no more George Bush in the White House. Al Gore pleaded with negotiators to go on as if this elephant is not in the room, come up with the strongest possible treaty confident that a new US administration will arrive on the scene come 2009.
And this is what I’m going to tell you, folks, as a final word this week: what happens in our national elections is critical to the planet. At every level of government, but especially in the races for president and for Congress, it is critical that we elect people committed to a firm, effective, urgent set of policies to attack the human causes of global warming and to get this nation on a course to live within the means of our planet — in a way that ensures dignified life for all on the planet now and all those to join us later.
For a brief summary of what is in the Bali declaration, visit this page at the BBC. To hear from the UN itself, visit the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Technorati Tags: United Nations climate change conference bali indonesia, U.S. booed in Bali, Bali road map, U.S. elections and climate change, united nations framework convention on climate change, unfcc
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2 Responses to ““If you cannot lead…get out of the way.””
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I heartily congratulate those who have contributed to this movement specially from this web site. It is a welcoming gesture by US to contribute in reducing the green house emmissions to help all the developing countries. It is a significant move. Rest of the developed countries will follow soon. Let us hope for the beeter future.
Dr. Paul Sereno speaks out loudly and clearly: “This is going to be the century where science either saves the planet, or we fail as a species.”
Dear Paul,
Seldom do I agree so completely with a single statement as I do with your statement above. It seems to me that the humankind has come to a crossroads, as many are recognizing in our time, and has a choice. We can choose to be guided by God’s great gift to humanity of good science and find the courage to do what is necessary to preserve our species and life as we know it or we can choose to stay the course of the predominant culture by overpopulating the planet, relentlessly expanding economic globalization activities and increasing per human over-consumption, which would lead most likely to the failure of humanity…….among other catastrophic occurrences and consequences.
Sincerely,
Steve
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/