Greenpeace

Well, Monday morning started with some excitement.  The first bit of draft text that will be the basis for the conference’s Bali Mandate included several of the most important aspects that we are pushing for.

The text included both a 2009 end date for the negotiation process for the second commitment period, and also included the important developed country 2020 reduction range of 25-40 percent.  This language is a crucial component that needs to be in the final version of the Bali Mandate.  The 25-40 percent range is an important signal to the developing world that developed counties will step up their level of commitment post 2012.

However, after beginning the morning with some excitement that the ranges were included in the first draft text, we were quickly thrown back when we learned that behind closed doors the United States, Canada, Japan, and even Australia had insisted that any reference to the reduction ranges be stricken from the text.  This is a very bad development that puts the Bali Mandate in question.  This is completely unacceptable.  We are now working with our international colleagues and NRO’s to pressure the delegations here in Bali.  More on how this goes later in the week.

Yesterday brought Senator John Kerry to the conference center.  He was here to talk about the other America.  This is the America that is taking action on climate at the city, state, regional, and now with the Lieberman Warner bill, even the federal level.  Senator Kerry had meetings with the EU, China, Germany, the Indonesian President of the COP, and also the President of Indonesia.  His message was clear and an important one for delegates to hear.  There is a sea change in the United States on climate, and increasing support from citizens, businesses, and now Members of Congress, is bringing the United States back to the table on climate change.  Make no mistake; there is a lot of work to do.  The Bush administration’s official delegation here in Bali is still trying to weaken the Bali Mandate in every way they can, but Senator Kerry’s message was received loud and clear in the conference, the tide is turning.

Well, it’s Saturday in Bali, and the UN Climate Conference is at its midpoint.  The temperatures are soaring and the negotiations are slowing.  

We have learned a lot about global warming in 2007. There is growing support in the US Congress for legislation that caps global warming pollution, more and more states are setting emissions limits and renewable energy targets, and the Nobel Prize winning IPCC released their most comprehensive report on the science of global warming to date.  That report paints a dire picture of what the future could look like if nations don’t act decisively here in Bali.  But the negotiations don’t reflect that sense of urgency.  But on Monday, Ministers and Heads of State from around the world will arrive, and not a minute to soon frankly.  They need to jumpstart this process if we are to leave Bali able to call this meeting a success.

We’d had an expectation that things would move much faster than they have.  We’ve seen some developing country movement which is positive, - including China (to a certain extent) - but we are seeing stagnation from the industrialized world, not the leadership we need.  We hope that all of this will change once the elected officials arrive on Monday.  The Ministers and Heads of State are much closer to the people and voters than the lower level bureaucrats, so we are hopeful the pace of the meeting will increase once they arrive.

We have an impressive Greenpeace presence at the meeting, with members from all over the world.  In addition to our Solar Generation youth, we have colleagues from China, India, the EU, Pacific island nations, Canada, Brazil, and many more.  All are working hard to push delegates to agree a mandate for a negotiation process that leads to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.  This second phase of the Protocol must lead to even stronger and deeper commitments from industrialized countries and expand the number of countries willing to take on targets.  It must also find away to bring deforestation into the international agreement.  In addition, recently developed countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia should agree to join Kyoto Nations that have taken on binding targets. 

News has been flying around the conference center about the action in United States Congress this week.  This action in both the House and the Senate has undercut the official U.S. delegation here.  While the Bush administration’s delegation in Bali continues to shun targets or timelines for U.S. emissions reductions, the Senate passed from committee, legislation that would reduce emissions in the U.S. 60% by 2050.  The house also passed an energy bill that increases fuel economy standards for cars for the first time in more than 20 years.  Senator Kerry will arrive in Bali early next week to talk to delegates about progress in the U.S.  Everyone here understands the clock is running out on the Bush administration, and the action in Congress this week highlights the progress that can be made once President Bush leaves the White House.

Yesterday, our flagship the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Bali with a flotilla of more than 50 local fishing boats.  There was enormous media interest in the arrival of the ship.  Having the Warrior here in Bali gives us a platform over the next week to push for a strong Bali Mandate and engage delegates, with many scheduling visits to the ship.

And finally, at the halfway point of the meeting, today is the International Day of Action on Climate.  There are events all over the world today.  From the streets just outside the conference center where thousands of Indonesians are calling on delegates to act, to town and cities all over the United States pushing elected leaders in the U.S. to act now.

The pace of the meeting will pick up quickly on Monday morning.  Stay tuned for more.

Day four from the Bali UN Climate Conference brought an announcement from the United States delegation.  Was it that they had decided to join Australia and become the final industrialized country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?  No.  Was it that they were prepared to agree to targets and timelines for emissions reductions and join the Europeans and others in support of a 25% to 40% reduction target by 2020?  I am afraid not.  Their big announcement was that they have invited the world’s 17 largest greenhouse gas emitters to the second in their series of Major Economies Meetings, or as we like to call it, “The Big Emitters”.   

It doesn’t come as a shock that their announcement was process and not substance, but to add insult to injury, they have made clear the meetings WILL NOT lead to country specific reduction targets.  It is simply a process to run out the clock on the Bush administrations final year in office.  We understand that as of now, while the caterers and hotel rooms have been booked, none of the countries have yet RSVP’d. 

The second in the series of the Big Emitters meetings, this time scheduled for Hawaii, distracts from the process that will begin here in Bali.  By the end of next week, in order for the Bali meeting to be considered a success, delegates must agree upon nothing short of a strong Bali Mandate.  That Mandate must create a clear negotiation process that leads to an agreement for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol by no later than 2009, This mandate must ultimately produce an agreement that with reduction levels for industrialized countries of at least 25% to 40% and broaden the number of willing to take on targets.  President Bush’s Major Emitters meeting is simply a distraction from the process that will be required to produce this post 2012 agreement.

Perhaps countries should consider sending low-level staff to the Major Emitters Meeting in January.  Hawaii in January is a lovely place, and the lower level staff deserve a trip once in a while.  But high level staff should stay home and work towards delivering the Bali Mandate.  Time is short, and we cannot afford to waste it with meetings that blow nothing but hot air.

 

 

The negotiations are moving fast and furious but we still have a long way to go.  While there has been an unprecedented level of focus around the world on the issue of global warming throughout 2007, the conference has yet to be infused with a sense of urgency.  With the United States making it clear that they will not support targets or timelines for greenhouse gas pollution reduction, we are still working hard to push other countries to lead.  While members of the European delegation have been saying the right words, they have not yet been playing the leadership role we need.  But we are working hard here to change that.  

As we begin to move towards the end of the first week of the conference the level of public activity is growing.  We are all excited for tomorrow, when Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior will sail into Denpasar.  A flotilla of dozens of boats will great her arrival.  The Warrior will host delegates from all over the world over the course of the next week and give us a platform from which we can highlight the importance of a strong Bali Mandate.

Saturday brings the global day of action on climate change.  Events all over the world will shine a spotlight on negotiators in Bali, demanding bold action here.  Nothing short of a strong Bali Mandate that charts a course toward the adoption of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol by 2009 will be acceptable.  

On Sunday, thousands will gather on the beach just a short distance from the conference to create a human beach art image of the earth.  Students from Step It Up here helping to organize the image.  Look for pictures early next week.

And finally on Monday, the high level segment of the negotiations will begin as many of the Ministers begin to arrive.  While there is much talk during the first week of the meeting, in most cases the real work begins once the ministers arrive.

I am incredibly impressed with the large number youth attending the conference.  Greenpeace's Solar Generation students are here in force joining a large and focused youth movement.  The youth delegation has been working the delegates hard, and have becoming an increasingly powerful force at these meetings. 

Stand by for more from Bali.

We at Greenpeace very much enjoyed listening to Chairman Dingell’s opening comments yesterday.  We agree that an emissions cap of 80 percent (with auctioned credits) AND a carbon tax would be a very good start.  And we strongly support both ideas. The suggestion that CAFÉ is unimportant is laughable and irresponsible.  

Reductions in transportation related emissions are essential and failure to get on a path toward major reductions from tailpipes will make it impossible to reduce total emissions by 80 percent by mid-century.  Our analysis shows that even if we cut transportation related emissions in half, the sectors share of total emissions will double from one to two-thirds of the problem by mid-century.    

Our concern with the Mr. Dingell’s position do not come from his rhetoric on climate change, but rather the initial legislation that he and Mr. Boucher submitted to the Committee. The draft legislation was not only inadequate because it did not include a renewable portfolio standard or increases to mandatory fuel economy standards. The larger problem with the draft was that it included several extremely harmful provisions.  Although these provisions have been removed from consideration today and yesterday they have not been taken off the table by Mr. Dingell yet.    

The draft legislation would:

• Repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act authority to regulate global warming pollution from vehicles and substantially limit its authority for cleaner fuels by legislatively overturning the Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA.  This authority could be a key administrative power in 2009.

•  Block California and a least 11 other states from going forward with adopted clean car standards that limit global warming emissions from vehicles. Under the Clean Air Act, California has always been authorized to go beyond federal minimum air pollution standards, and other states may adopt the California standards - in their entirety.

• Open the door to liquid coal fuels and other nonrenewable alternatives, while failing to ensure that these fuels produce substantially less global warming pollution than the fuels we use today. Together with the liquid coal incentives in the broader bill, which lack clear limits on emissions, the bill would propel the development of a liquid coal fuels industry, with only a plan in place, but no guarantee of global warming emissions reductions.

 

Some of you might have been left wondering after reading the post on Grist about Mr Dingell.

We cannot disagree that Mr. Dingell is one of the most powerful members of congress, and we will work with him and his staff to craft legislation that solves climate change. In the end, Mr. Dingell needs to lead or get out of the way of the leadership’s effort to advance strong global warming legislation.

 

After hearing the news from the White House that President Bush was set to unveil his new strategy for combating global warming, I wondered if he had finally returned to where he began? Was he finally going to make good on his broken promise from the 2000 campaign to support the Kyoto Protocol, and lead the international effort to solve global warming? Well, it’s now clear the answer is no. Not only is the President’s “plan” no more than “too little, too late”, but it is in fact, a dangerous distraction that puts at risk the serious attempt to agree upon timelines and targets for reducing global warming pollution that is on the table for the G8 meeting this week. In unveiling his new plan, the President talked about the need to create a new process that will continue once the Kyoto Protocol “expires” in 2012. But the President knows that the Kyoto Protocol does not expire in 2012. What happens in 2012 is not the expiration of the Protocol, but the beginning of a second, even stronger commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The Presidents “plan” is a clear attempt to derail this second set of commitments. If the President wants to act on climate change, the first thing he should do is to setting a cap on global warming pollution and supporting a national renewable energy standard. The President doesn’t have to start a new process to agree to targets with major emitters, he could simply agree to the targets proposed for the G8 meeting next week. If he does not do that, the other seven G8 members need to move forward without President Bush. The President talked about the need to engage the rapidly developing countries of China and India. However, the President forgot to mention the fact that both China and India have already ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S. has not. We are the single largest emitter of global warming pollution on the planet. The average citizen of the U.S. uses more than 6 times the amount of energy as the average Chinese citizen. If the President were serious about battling global warming he would have set a goal. The Europeans have set a goal based in solid science, keeping average global temperature change under 3.7 F degrees. Scientists tell us that our planet will likely face profound changes with a temperature change of more than 3.7 degrees. A 50% cut in global emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels is what science demands and will require industrialized countries to cut their emissions by 30 percent by 2020 and 80-90 percent by 2050. The President, on the other hand, offered no targets or timelines. He proposed a meeting that would attempt to set “aspirational goals” by the end of 2008. This might have been appropriate 10 years ago, but it is wholly inadequate given all we have learned about the science of global warming over the last decade. The newly elected German government of Chancellor Merkel has proposed strong language on global warming for this week’s G8 meeting. To keep the United States from derailing progress at the international level, Ms. Merkel should lead the rest of the G8, and leave the United States behind. Allowing the U.S. to water down the G8 language by removing any meaningful target, timeline, or goal would be a slap in the face to many of the U.S.’s most important allies. Instead, the seven Kyoto Protocol members of the G8 should ignore the President’s “new plan”, and instead, commit next week to radical emission cuts and to concluding plans for the second binding commitment under the Kyoto Protocol by 2009 at the latest.