A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute
A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute
A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute
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Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. Th<strong>is</strong> electronic copy <strong>is</strong> provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.<br />
www.brucenixon.com<br />
(LGAM), Non-Governmental Observers and Media/Press following the proceedings and attending side events<br />
and exhibits.<br />
Then there were the protesters. The Dan<strong>is</strong>h government had rushed through new repressive laws. There<br />
were mass “preventative” arrests. Protesters were treated violently and there were many arrests including<br />
media people.<br />
The Bella Centre, thirty minutes drive from the city, lacked sufficient space to accommodate it all. Many<br />
people were accommodated far away from the centre. Consequently, some people slept on floors and<br />
settees. Outside the conference negotiations were many NGOs and protesters, together with some of the<br />
press and the media. Perhaps 40,000 people came, including the 20,000 attendees.<br />
Arrangements were chaotic and contributed to m<strong>is</strong>trust. In the second week NGOs and key civil society<br />
organ<strong>is</strong>ations were unable to get in. On Thursday of that the Chief Negotiators for Brazil and for India were<br />
barred. The Chief Negotiator for the Indian Government was so upset with how he was manhandled that he<br />
couldn’t think straight and, before putting India’s representations to the conference, waited for about 20<br />
minutes whilst he got h<strong>is</strong> composure back! Brazil and India are not minor players. Arguably, Brazil’s<br />
rainforest holds the key to human survival.<br />
The main conference room was windowless, separating everyone from the environment and the biosphere<br />
on which all our futures depend, main subject of the conference. The Northern elite mind <strong>is</strong> d<strong>is</strong>connected<br />
from Nature and the reality of life for billions of people in other parts of the <strong>world</strong>. Deep <strong>is</strong>sues of personal<br />
identity are an obstacle to accepting the transformation in our way of life that <strong>is</strong> needed so urgently.<br />
Summits, deciding the fate of all life on the planet, should be held in places where people (and other<br />
creatures) are most vulnerable and where delegates can see the natural <strong>world</strong> outside – not in a windowless<br />
centre in an affluent city.<br />
Here <strong>is</strong> an account of the negotiations based on IIED’s report. In the second week, towards the end of the<br />
negotiations, talks were going on in two completely separate processes. First, negotiations among all 192<br />
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change continued. Second, and behind<br />
closed doors, a select group of about 25 <strong>world</strong> leaders came up with the Copenhagen Accord, to which most<br />
of the vulnerable countries had very little input. As 25 Parties agreed to the Accord, President Obama told<br />
the US media that a deal had been struck. The only trouble was that it had yet to be presented to and<br />
adopted by all 192 countries attending; so h<strong>is</strong> announcement was premature and looked as if the US was<br />
trying to take undue credit. China, India, Brazil and South Africa formed a new block called BASIC. As the<br />
BASIC group took on the industrial<strong>is</strong>ed nations, the most vulnerable countries were squeezed out. As a<br />
result, the G77/China block of 130 developing nations may not survive. A new block representing poorer<br />
developing nations seems likely. Gradually they began to comprom<strong>is</strong>e. Prime Min<strong>is</strong>ter Zenawi of Ethiopia,<br />
representing Africa, made a deal with President Sarkozy of France and dropped the 1.5-degree target in<br />
exchange for a prom<strong>is</strong>e of funding for Africa. Th<strong>is</strong> split the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), most but not all<br />
of which are African, and left the small <strong>is</strong>lands as the only nations hanging on to the 1.5-degree target.<br />
The story of Kiribati <strong>is</strong> shocking and reveals the flaws in the conference process that led to unjust and<br />
d<strong>is</strong>appointing outcomes. During the Schumacher College course, we l<strong>is</strong>tened to a firsthand account of the<br />
conference given by Alex Randall from the Centre for Alternative Technology. Alex and a colleague were to<br />
attend COP15 as representatives of CAT. Beforehand they noticed that some country’s delegations were<br />
enormous whilst others were tiny. They decided to research which countries most needed help. They took<br />
the IPCC maps on hydrological collapse, matched them with density of population, low GDP per capita and<br />
the smallest negotiating teams. They e-mailed all those worst off countries to offer their services. Kiribati<br />
with only five representatives accepted.<br />
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