Climate Negotiations

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In the climate negotiations two unhelpful attitudes are all too common: us and them, and after you.

17 years ago, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change created a world which codified "us" and "them", "Annex 1" and "non-Annex 1", "the developed world" and "the developing world". In 2009, a world of such binary opposites is even less real than it was in 1992. Especially when the "developing world" includes South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, along with Tuvalu, Lesotho and Nepal. Unless the international community can find some way to break down this binary, sooner rather than later, our collective response to the climate challenge will be too slow and too weak.

As long as this unhelpful binary exists, it reinforces an "after you" dynamic in the negotiations, or "I won't show you mine until you show me yours". All countries are guilty of this to some extent. In the UK and EU we have done more than most to put concrete quantified offers onto the negotiating table - with PM Gordon Brown's speech of 26 June the latet example (see my previous posting if you missed it). Initial reactions to the speech seem to be positive. The UK Government recognises that there are details to be discussed, but feels it is important that we have these discussions clearly and openly, and as early as possible. We can't wait until negotiators sit down in Copenhagen to get into the detail of climate finance in the deal.

I'm going to be travelling for the remainder of July, so you won't hear from me again until next month. But let me leave you with two thoughts, the first paraphrased from Kapil Sibal in Bali in December 2007:

Climate change is not a me problem or a you problem, it's an us problem.

It's not an after you approach we need to solve this problem, it's a follow me one.