Meeting our minister!

At the climate conference of the UNFCCC it is not unlikely to run into famous world leaders. We have found ourselves less than 10 metres away from UN boss Ban Ki Moon (although there were a dozen broad-shouldered security guys in between of course). Anne Marie almost bumped into secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer in a hallway. And we've met several Dutch members of parliament. But meeting our minister of the environment was a very special occassion. We joined her in a tour of the exhibition, where innovations in energy efficiency and wind and solar technology are shown. There were a lot of Dutch contributions, and we even danced with minister Cramer in the sustainable dance club of Watt!

Climate of tension as ministers arrive in Poznan

This morning, ministers of the 190 countries participating in the UN Climate Conference in Poznan arrived to take part in the last 2 (or eventually 3) days of negotiations. The disappointing result of the negotiations up to now and the fear that the conference in Poznan will be a failure result in a tense climate in the corridors of the conference. But there is still much hope that the arrival of the ministers can trigger a more fruitful process and that’s why NGOs are doing whatever they can to get our highest representatives at the UNFCCC to “stop talking and act now!”.

Nobody can say it was for lack of effort of the delegates that there have been little advance in the negotiations. Their task was made almost a mission impossible. At this moment most parties don’t dare or can’t move in any direction. This was partly already expected because of the financial crisis and of the fact that the new presidency of the US will only take office in January. The American delegation is taking part in the conference as only quiet observers and it’s hard to know to what extent Obama will be able to give the American position the necessary 180˚ turn. Yet, even the very low expectations that we had in the beginning of the conference are not being met due to the lack of leadership of the European Union. The EU hasn’t been able to agree in time on its own climate package and it is therefore playing a very disappointing role in Poznan.

But we’re not watching this in silence. On Tuesday, we woke up at 5am to take part in a demonstration in Warsaw, where Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, was meeting with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister. Germany and Poland are the key players among a group of countries hindering the approval of a strong EU climate package. A weak EU climate package would influence the UN climate negotiations process in a very negative way and would therefore make an ambitious global deal to combat climate change extremely difficult.

In this climate of tension, civil society organizations in Poznan are putting together their last resources to call upon the ministers to speed up the process. This morning, the conference was full of small actions by NGOs. ICCO and partners also held a press conference to reinforce its concerns expressed in the campaign ‘Countdown to Copenhagen’

However, so far we haven’t seen much speed from the part of the ministers. It seems that all the 190 ministers will first give their opening speeches of around 5 minutes. I personally only managed to listen to a couple of them. They’re not only very boring, but how anxious can they make us before they starting doing business?

by Raimer Rodrigues Rezende

Atlantis 2?

(te horen op Radio 1, vrijdag tussen 10.30 en 12.00 uur)

Het einde van de klimaatconferentie in Poznan komt in zicht. 2 weken lang is jan en alleman bezig geweest met onderhandelen, netwerken, tekstvoorstellen schrijven en heel wat uurtjes lobbyen.
En waar staan we nu? Niet veel verder dan toen ik aankwam.

Ik interview Fioru voor ons klimaatjournaal. Hij komt uit Tuvalu, een kleine eilandengroep van ongeveer 26km2 in de Stille Oceaan, er wonen 8000 mensen. Zijn landje dreigt door de stijgende zeespiegel van de kaart te worden geveegd. Hij is samen met de kleine delegatie al jaren bezig om te strijden voor een eerlijk klimaatverdrag, maar het zit er voorlopig niet in.
Tuvalu is een waar paradijs voor hem, maar de laatste tijd doen zich steeds meer zware stormen voor. De golven slaan soms zelfs het hele eiland over en de zoetwatervoorziening is compleet afhankelijk van regenwater. Door klimaatverandering wordt dit alleen maar versterkt. Fioru houdt de westerse landen verantwoordelijk, het liefst zou hij de hele wereld wel willen aanklagen voor wat ze Tuvalu aandoen. Voor de bewoners van Tuvalu zit er niks anders op dan asiel aanvragen in Australie.

Aan het einde van het interview bied ik Fioru symbolisch een paar zwembandjes aan, zodat hij bij de volgende overstroming voorbereid is. Hij neemt ze lachend van me aan. Ironisch genoeg is dit precies wat de westerse landen zouden moeten doen tijdens deze conferentie en niet gedaan hebben: hem de mogelijkheid bieden om zich te beschermen tegen het wassende water.

by Anne Marie

Sunday: a sunny day?

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

Politicians: stop clowning around!

We zijn aangekomen in Poznan, jawel! Het heeft wat moeite gekost, want we hebben de moeder aller files doorstaan….. 4 uur lang tussen Hannover en Berlijn. En echt alleen maar stilstaan he, dat heeft heel wat CO2-deeltjes gekost ;)
Vanmorgen om 6.30 zijn we uiteindelijk aangekomen en konden we even slapen in ons hostel voor 3 uurtjes.

Dan de grote dag van vandaag: world climate-day! Over de gehele wereld zijn er vandaag demonstraties gehouden om politici op het klimaatvraagstuk te wijzen. Op welke plek is het op dit moment het belangrijkste? Inderdaad, Poznan. Hier komen de verschillende landen samen om te onderhandelen over toekomstige klimaatafspraken. En laat het op dit moment nog niet heel lekker lopen met die onderhandelingen, dus die demonstratie was hard nodig!


Vele mensen van allerlei nationaliteiten verzamelden zich op het grote plein in Poznan. Organisaties zoals Greenpeace, Oxfam Novib en natuurlijk ook ICCO liepen mee in de demonstratie. De ME en politie te paard was overal zwaar vertegenwoordigd en er cirkelde een helikopter boven ons hoofd, waardoor het zeker niet uit de hand zou lopen. Alles verliep echter heel goed en er was een gemoedelijke sfeer. Op wat anarchisten na die de onderhandelingen hypocriet vonden (geef ze stiekem op bepaalde punten wel gelijk….)


De internationale jongeren deden mee onder de slogan: politicians, stop clowning around, we take the climate serious. Dit was een duidelijke boodschap, hard nodig nu de onderhandelingen niet echt vlotten. Volgende week komen de milieuministers aan en ben benieuwd wat er dan gaat gebeuren!


Ons videoproject is inmiddels ook gestart en ik hoop jullie snel de eerste resultaten te laten zien. De komende dagen gaan we verschillende bijeenkomsten bijwonen, meeten met de buitenlandse partners van ICCO en heel veel andere jongeren ontmoeten. En heel veel filmen natuurlijk, onze zoektocht naar Ban Ki Moon is gestart ;)

Tot snel!

by Anne Marie

Countdown to Copenhagen!

In a successful side-event of the UN Climate Conference in Poznán today, ICCO and eight European ecumenical partners launched their new campaign Countdown to Copenhagen. In December 2009 in Copenhagen, an agreement has to be reached on a follow up to the current Kyoto Protocol.

The focus of the campaign is twofold. Firstly that the clock is ticking and we have no time to waste. Secondly, it emphasizes the necessity of an equitable framework for fighting climate change, in which the costs for mitigation and adaptation should be paid according to each country’s historical responsibility and capacity.

“If the rich countries can bailout their banks just like that, why can’t they bailout the planet?”, said Meena Raman from Friends of the Earth Malaysia when discussing the rich countries’ unwillingness to pay their due bill.

Announcing the event, four volunteers walked around the conference and handed out flyers. They called a lot of attention because they were wearing large clock suits that symbolize the countdown. I was one of them and I must say that I had never been so much photographed in my life.

The event itself lasted for two hours and counted with 5 panelists from the South, among them one Fair Climate ambassador, who is originally from Brazil (actually me).

Judging from the full room and the receptivity of the public, we can say that the event was a success and that so does the campaign promise to be.

You can join the campaign by signing the Copenhagen pledge. Go to ICCO’s site http://www.fairclimate.nl/climate.nl or to the international Countdown site: http://www.countdowntocopenhagen.org/

by Raimer Rodrigues Rezende

Op naar Poznan!

Vanmiddag vertrekken 5 FairClimate ambassadeurs naar de klimaatconferentie van de VN in Poznan, Polen. We zullen verslag doen van onze belevenissen en de gebeurtenissen op de klimaattop middels filmpjes en blogs.

Ben jij ook zo benieuwd hoe het er nou echt aan toe gaat op een internationale conferentie? Heb je altijd al willen weten wat een lobbyist nou eigenlijk doet? En vraag je je af waar die achterkamertjes zich nou eigenlijk bevinden?

Bekijk dan iedere werkdag ons FairClimate journaal op www.fairclimate.nl of lees onze blogs!

Suzanne