The Daily Tck

Race to the Future: www.tcktcktck.org

Summary of the Current status/situation

6 October 2011

Coming up to the last lap here in Panama, but it is hard to see anyone doing any running. Apparently there is quite a bit of text circulating (or at least Facilitators Notes that can be easily transferred to text), but on the critical issues of the legal discussions and finance we are not certain we will leave Panama with anything positive. The legal discussions on the LCA side of the negotiations (which includes all countries) continue to attract huge numbers (and the Chair is to be congratulated for letting observers into the meetings) but weve only got as far as a non-paper that doesnt really take us anywhere. The US earned a Fossil of the Day award earlier this week (http://www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day) for their position of there is no point in having this discussion because it wont end where we want it to. The discussions havent moved from there. The best that can be said about the legal discussion in the LCA track is that at least the Parties are exchanging their views; this is possibly a little step above not talking about it. But the Parties are entrenched and the negative position taken by the US earlier in the week is allowing other countries to hide behind them. On the issue of long term finance, the EU today submitted some text which could help move things along. Hopefully this submission will help the US (and the countries hiding behind them) realise that refusing to allow a discussion on long term finance is causing overspending some of the goodwill that is rare in these talks. We have heard that many of the issues about the Green Climate Fund (GCF) will be resolved at a pre-COP ministerial meeting due to be held in Capetown but not to the satisfaction of NGOs. Huh? We want and need the Durban COP to take key decisions on the nature and form of the GCF, including the appointment of the Board with arrangements for meaningful civil society participation, establishment of thematic funding windows and access modalities. What could they possibly be thinking? We are all looking for some good news and we found some when South Africa made a submission of text that at least puts the bunker fuel levy discussion (one potential source of funding) on the table.

What is happening?
It is all about the money. We had reasonable grounds to expect some movement on long term finance to come out of Panama. NGOs and developing countries do not operate in a vacuum, they know that finance on the scale necessary, especially in these economic times will take a lot of hard work, negotiations and time and are rightly concerned about any delay in moving this work forward. One can only imagine the announcement coming out of Durban on finance (tongue is firmly planted in cheek):

We have a Green Climate Fund! Theres no money in it, but we have had many really interesting meetings discussing how it should look, whether the piggy bank should be a pink one, or perhaps speckled, how big the slot in the top should be to put money in, whether the tail will be straight or curled. These are important issues. And the money for the fund? Money? Well of course now we have the right shape for the piggy bank, we can now spend another year talking about putting money in the fund. Urgent? Well you must understand that money is an important issue and these things cant be rushed. I know we bailed out the banks overnight when they were in trouble, but that was important.

Message for the day

Get your act together and fill the fund.

What you can do today?

Spread the word about the clean energy way for Japan in Greenpeaces energy scenario: http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/er_report.pdf; the summary is available here: http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/Global/japan/pdf/er_summary_eng.pdf Sing the WWF Japan 100% renewables petition calling for a shift from nukes to renewables: http://www.wwf.or.jp/questionnaire/2011/07/take_action_now__sign_our_petition.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social_media&utm_content= actionpack&utm_campaign=takeaction Check out the latest blogs and videos the Adopt-A-Negotiator team has posted on their website (www.adoptanegotiator.org) Petition asking Australian government to act works towards a global deal on climate change and supporting innovative sources of financing to assist developing countries adapt to climate change. http://www.oxfam.org.au/act/take-action/climate-change/2008-08-petition

Other materials:
7 reasons why we need a robust and comprehensive climate agreement: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/7-reasons-we-need-to-keep_b_991654.html New OECD and IEA report on Fossil Fuel Subsidies- essential reading: http://bit.ly/qOL0Ij