Heading out to the Bourget today, where for the first time a large space “The Green Zone” has been set aside for the public to participate in events.
I wouldn’t be honest here if I didn’t admit to feeling a tad disappointed that I was among hundreds upon hundreds unable to receive accreditation this year to the official “Blue Zone.” I was sincerely hooked before on the excitement of gaining access to the COP, where I had the authority to mingle with ‘the mighty’ and the license to stir up a little trouble with questions to bigwigs representing the likes of USAID and WHO while rubbing elbows with Christina Figueres, Todd Stern, Ban Ki-Moon and Mary Robinson.
Coming to Paris for this COP was my dream since Copenhagen and I remain overjoyed just to be here for what is without doubt an historic happening.
And due to official access to previous conferences, my inboxes have been overflowing for months now with reports from listservs on expectations and insider scoops and hype surrounding the Paris Talks. So I am keeping abreast of all the inside scoops as well as the ‘messaging.’
So I came this time to help out at the buzzing off-site Creative Factory and co-working mecca underway at Place To B, where evening live streamed PlaceToBriefs debuted Monday and Tuesday with appearances by one and onlies Naomi Klein and James Hansen. (Hansen, not a believer in the COP process, was persuaded of the need to come to Paris to share his latest findings and appeared at Place To B while also speaking earlier at the official venue.)
I am also here to attend what I have always considered the highlights of the COPs: this weekend’s Global Landscape Forum and Saturday’s Global Health And Climate Alliance.
And lastly, but most important to me, for meetings to solicit potential connections for my pioneering non-profit 2050kids.
Now on to some selectively curated headlines from Paris.
The World Is Watching
For starters, for those who are following the talks closely, here’s where to watch
live UNFCCC broadcasts.
The big news this morning is that the first text of the negotiating agreement has been released: Draft agreement and draft decision on workstreams 1 and 2 of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
At long last interested in getting up to date on what COPs are really all about? Check out Climate Reality Project’s five videos detailing what you need to know about COP21.
My Personal Favorites
I need to be able to return to my people and say that we joined a Paris Agreement that gives us hope and a pathway to survival, not one that signs our sovereignty away. After what President Obama said to me today, I am more confident than ever before that we can secure the ambitious agreement we need.” Marshall Islands president Christopher Loeak.
As world leaders departed Paris Monday soon after issuing their lofty rhetorical commitments to the success of COP21, US President Barack Obama stayed behind, meeting with representatives from the world’s most endangered populations to express our country’s commitment to ensure their voices are heard and respected. (No, Stern wasn’t there:))
Without doubt, the most inspirational reporting from COP21 to date was Monday’s Guardian post by Greenpeace Executive Director Kumi Naidoo: Paris climate talks: The poorest countries are putting the richest to shame .
Naidoo zones in on Philippines, Kiribati and Morocco as “the true heroes of COP21” ( Which countries are doing the most to stop dangerous global warming?) while fearlessly speaking truth to power in calling out the twenty-odd COP promoters as “energy dinosaurs” for their ongoing use of coal-fired power and investments in the nuclear energy sector.
... for an average €547,000 payment, multinationals such as Renault, L’Oreal and Engie can buy themselves valuable publicity that disguises their true emissions record, according to the study (pdf) by Observatoire des Multinationales and LeBasic.
“There is no denying that a lot of people in these companies are making efforts, but it is shocking that only one of them is reducing its emissions in line with the EU’s long-term plans,” said Olivier Petitjean, one of the report’s authors. (read Paris climate summit: Survey reveals 'greenwash' of corporate sponsors)
Naidoo reported on Monday’s Climate Vulnerable Forum, where representatives of 43 of the world’s poorest and most endangered nations called once again for an agreement to limit global warming to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial times. Nothing new here — the inadequacy of the current 2C negotiating threshold has long been recognized a woefully inadequate if many of the Pacific (AOSIS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) can hope to survive.
In a joint declaration Monday, leaders from the CVF called for “100% renewable energy production by 2050” and demanded real action and agreed “to strengthen our own national climate actions in order to … help trigger increased commitments from all countries.”
Ecowatch Stefanie Spear nailed down an interview with Yeb Sano yesterday to find out his expectations for COP21. From Yeb Saño and the Fast for the Climate Movement at COP21)
“Well I have an aspiration for COP21 to be the miracle that it should be,” he replied. “We have been walking from Rome to Paris for close to 650 days. We have hope in our hearts that the miracle can happen here in Paris. It is really the only one that can provide the success that the world deserves. So I ask world leaders, please do not stand in the way from that miracle happening. I appeal to them that they look into their hearts and hear the clammer for change and transformation, and build a future that is safe, peaceful, harmonious and sustainable.”
Harper’s Rebecca Solnit notes in Calculated Risk that at the conclusion of Monday’s forum of the most climate vulnerable nations, Christina Figures noted: “The countries around this table are going to determine whether we have an ambitious agreement or just have an agreement. And that difference is a key difference. The quality of the Paris agreement equals the quality of life for the most vulnerable.”
A successful agreement, Solnit concludes, is not about quality of life; rather is about “the quantity of death.”
What is needed is for all nations to commit to substantial emissions reductions now and to ratchet up those commitments in the future. This seems viable as both climate science and climate engineering grow more precise—knowledge of how, for example, farming can become a means of carbon sequestration (pulling it out of the atmosphere and putting it back in the ground, where we’ve been taking it from these last 200 years) seems to be a promising indicator that we will be able to make increasingly good and sophisticated decisions. On this front, the European Union has made a dramatic commitment—cutting emissions by 40 percent, to below 1990 levels. Russia and the United States have chosen 2005 as their benchmark instead. For a framework that began in 1992, 2005 is a lousy benchmark; it’s like a person who’s gained a hundred pounds deciding that losing the last fifty will get the job done. But the United States seems to have made the calculated decision that getting back to its 1990 weight would just be too painful.
That’s it for today folks.
Onward.