Meeting fair trade farmers in Durban
Marita Ulvskog, Jo Leinen, Dan Jorgensen and Kriton Arsenis are already in Durban Summit
The South Africans are working in an open and inclusive spirit, giving us hope that this UN conference will have tangible results not only in the implementation of existing agreements but also in establishing a roadmap towards a fair, ambitious, legally binding international agreement in order to address the imminent threats of climate change.
As climate change particularly affects developing countries, one of the first meetings S&D members Marita Ulvskog and Kriton Arsenis had after arriving in Durban Ghana
The farmers presented the everyday effects of climate change to their production and livelihood. The S&D members discussed with them the link between agriculture and climate mitigation, while the farmers urged them to continue their efforts to keep climate change in the international and European agenda despite the current economic crisis.
Fighting for a just transition towards green jobs
Today Euro MPs Marita Ulvskog, Dan Jorgensen, Linda McAvan and Kriton Arsenis met trade unions from Europe, Africa and Latin America to discuss the ITUC's campaign for 'Just transition towards green jobs'.
The trade unions updated MEPs on the status of the negotiations. They are fighting to get this language into the agreement on shared vision.
Discussion on biofuels with Brazilian Parliamentarians
As consumption of bioethanol increases across on the world, Brazil has to increase yields to meet supply. Brazil is working to develop biofuel technology to use across the world. Compulsory and mandatory targets are needed, particularly in the area of mitigation. A second generation biofuel is still a long way off. So for now, Brazil is trying to meet the demand of bioethanol.
On climate change mitigation, Brazil would like to see a second commitment period to Kyoto Protocol is critically important. In terms of working with other BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China), each country will work independently, but in a globalised world. These countries will share technology and work together. Copenhagen created awareness in Brazil on the issue of climate change. The fact that Europe is in Cancun and is sitting with countries like Brazil confirms that mobilisation of countries is needed to resolve climate change.
Careful optimism
The Delegation got briefed on the lastest developments of the negotiations by the Commission. The tone of the COP16 conference is careful optimism - the key word being balance. The Mexican presidency is doing everything they can to ensure an inclusive conference. However, discussions are fragile, and that today is critical. A new text on both tracks have been published, and the day has been spent analysing the text, and giving first feedback.
Later today, the presidency had a meeting with different leaders to get a view on the different positions of each country. The discussion was constructive apart from Bolivia who walked out of the meeting. No other countries followed. The discussion centered on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and whether there will be a legally binding agreement in the future or not.
Countries are listening and beginning to state their positions. The key countries to watch in the next 24 hours are China, Japan, US, Russia and South Africa . But it is still early days...
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| Photo credit: European Parliament |
We meet Mexican members of Parliament
The meeting with Mexican "congresistas" was a very warm and friendly. The discussion focussed on the role of parliamentarians in pushing climate mitiagation and adaptation policy. In addition, everyone agreed that it is clear that the role of the host parliamentarian is key to help the negotiation process.
Though the outcome is uncertain, negotiations are finally progressing. By Kriton Arsenis
The replacement of Dutch Yvo De Boer with Cost Rican Christiana Figueres as the new UNFCC Executive Secretary and Denmark with Mexico as the country hosting the conference, makes a difference in the climate change negotiations. The sense of trust which had collapsed in Copenhagen has to a significant degree been re-established in Cancun. From the first week, issues which have been in deadlock for years have started being solved. The negotiations are being freed from the details and are focusing on the most important issues at hand.The negotiating texts that the Mexican Presidency has submitted form a commonly accepted basis for discussion. The Mexicans have avoided the mistakes of the Danish Presidency, which regarded the outcome of Copenhagen as a decision to be taken by the most powerful States of the planet and negotiated behind closed doors. Mexico is implementing an open system of negotiations, which is transparent and all inclusive. This is therefore the most positive outcome from Copenhagen; that the developed countries realized that even the poorest country on Earth needs to be heard if the sought after agreement is to be achieved.
This also entails a cost. The lowest common denominator and solutions on which all countries can agree on are not sufficient to combat Climate Change. Achievements from previous stages of the negotiations regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, the protection of biodiversity and many other issues of environmental importance within the proposed solutions for tackling Climate Change are being lost. The texts of the agreement contain an ever growing number of flexible terms of commitments which focus on the creation of financial products and are inadequate for the tackling of Climate Change.
However, this could be less important then not achieving an agreement. Maybe many of us did indeed envision a complete change of our world through this agreement and have asked for things that are hard to digest by all the countries of our planet. The important thing is that all countries realize that we need to act together in order to combat this man-made threat. If we manage to reach an agreement, reality will force us to gradually correct any inadequacies this agreement may entail.
In Cancun, we hope that the final agreement will start maturing. Few decisions are likely to be taken here. However, the negotiating texts have started becoming more and more widely accepted.
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