Days 12, 13, and 14 — COP17, Durban: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, December 9-11, 2011
Saturday, December 10
This just in from your human on the spot:
The final details (and they are important) are still being negotiated as I write this at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning, but the basic framework of the Kyoto Protocol that needed to be saved/renewed/affirmed has been approved, which is reasonably good news for the planet.
It’s not enough, but it keeps the process moving forward.
I believe that a new dynamic is being set in motion here, involving on the inside most of the Third World and the European Union, and on the outside in the global climate justice movement, especially the way that young people in their 20s or even younger have stepped up their ability to be heard and taken seriously. And finally, in the communication process between the inside and the outside, on a variety of levels.
More later!
John
Sunday, December 11
The conference has ended with an official agreement. The UNFCCC press release contains much hyper-inflated self-congratulation, starting with the title: “Durban conference delivers breakthrough in international community’s response to climate change.” It goes on:
“We have taken crucial steps forward for the common good and the global citizenry today. I believe that what we have achieved in Durban will play a central role in saving tomorrow, today,” said Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation and President of the Durban UN Climate Change Conference (COP17/CMP7).
And more:
“I salute the countries who made this agreement. They have all laid aside some cherished objectives of their own to meet a common purpose – a long-term solution to climate change. I sincerely thank the South African Presidency who steered through a long and intense conference to a historic agreement that has met all major issues,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The post-mortems (possibly an appropriate term, but maybe not) have also begun. Here is part of Climate Justice Now!’s press release about the outcome, which is titled COP17 succumbs Climate Apartheid: Antidote is Cochabamba Peoples’ Agreement”:
“Decisions resulting from the UN COP17 climate summit in Durban constitute a crime against humanity, according to Climate Justice Now! a broad coalition of social movements and civil society. Here in South Africa, where the world was inspired by the liberation struggle of the country’s black majority, the richest nations have cynically created a new regime of climate apartheid.”
Here is the New York Times first report:
“For 17 years, officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered under the auspices of the United Nations to try to deal with one of the most vexing questions of our era – how to slow the heating of the planet.
Every year they leave a trail of disillusion and discontent, particularly among the poorest nations and those most vulnerable to rising seas and spreading deserts. Every year they fail to significantly advance their own stated goal of keeping the average global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, or about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels.”
Many, many more statements, analyses, and news stories will follow. Richard and I intend to track them, and start to put them together with the rich interviews and observations we have gathered over the past two weeks.
The struggle will continue.
The real work of iicat begins here…
John