Today we attended a NGO meeting about the progress made in the first week of the negotiations of the UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland. Several fundamental questions were raised, such as: "Are the 25-40% emission reductions by 2020 as expressed at the Bali conference of 2007 still in play?”, and "Is staying below a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius still achievable?”.
A definitive answer to these questions cannot be given halfway the conference of course, but during interviews with participants of the conference one thing became clear to us: there remains a lot to be done in order to answer these questions positively.
The impasse between developed and developing countries remains. Developed countries stress that they do not want to commit themselves to high emission reductions unless the developing countries (including booming countries such as China and India) agree on reductions as well. On the other hand, developing countries maintain their viewpoint that the industrialized world should take leadership and make efforts, since they are the ones who are historically - and currently for the greatest part - responsible for climate change. Furthermore, proposals by developing countries on combating and adapting to climate change are completely ignored by the developed countries.
At the same time, the EU is meeting in Brussels to negotiate on their climate and energy package. The results of this meeting will influence the outcomes of the UN conference on climate change to a big extent. If the EU will not come forward as a leader in the climate negotiations because they have not resolved their internal disputes, it will be unlikely that ambitious plans will be made in Poznan.
That's why we will attend a big demonstration in Warsaw on Tuesday, to show prime ministers Merkel (Germany) and Tusk (Poland) – who are blocking the negotiations on the climate and energy package – that we find it very important that an agreement is reached in Brussels ánd Poznan.
by Suzanne
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