Day 10: Morassed in the final furlong

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 | uncategorized

16 Dec 2009

Leonie Joubert is a science writer, reporting for Independent Newspapers from the United Nations climate negotiations taking place in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December. This is her blog-on-the-side.

Today started badly. I’m not sure if it was the lingering malaise after the off-again on-again insomnia that plagues me when I get too much sensory input (this conference has been an information overload), or the result of going to bed on one glass of wine and no dinner (that’s another story) – but it took me a while to get out of the starting blocks.

It wasn’t just me, though. Everything seemed slumped and oppressive in the pre-dawn chill – the cafeterias opened slowly (leaving those of us needing the morning caffeine and croissant fix decidedly grumpy); the negotiators avoided eye contact; the media room was pessimistic about the outcome of talks; activists stormed the perimeters of the conference in frustration at being denied access to the building.

Things, as they say in the headlines, were tense here today.

So we’re down to the final furlong. There are a little over 48 hours left before the deadline (midnight, Friday) to wrap this thing up, and it’s strange that people seem surprised that the past fortnight hasn’t produced some kind of miraculous agreement around tackling climate change. Countries have been gridlocked on the same problems for the past two years – why would the final two weeks of negotiations suddenly unlock all these issues in beautiful harmony!?

Still, the heads of state arrive tomorrow and the bleeding-heart optimists are sure that they’ll all have big promises in their back pockets that will somehow shift the diplomatic morass. I doubt it.

It looks more and more as though we’ll end up with a rough framework which will only be beaten into legal shape at the next climate summit (Mexico, 2010). But then if it’s so easy to break the deadline set at the Bali summit two years ago (that things be wrapped up at this summit), setting a new deadline rings a little hollow right now.

And still the science says we have to peak our greenhouse gas emissions by 2015. That deadline doesn’t shift. So every week we delay on the mechanisms to force that peak, is another potential nail in the climate’s coffin.

But tonight I’m not going to go to bed without dinner… there’s an Africa bloc press briefing at 8pm, then a few of us are off to forage for grub on our way home. Hopefully food and a good night’s sleep will put the spring back in my step tomorrow. Ten days down, two to go…

Scorched

Rational Writing by Leonie Joubert