Not just some random thoughts…
UNCCC
Is It For Real?
Dec 9th
United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) 2009 or COP15 has been one of the most hyped multilateral event on the radar in recent times. The conference has gained unprecedented attention, both political and sentimental. The print media and NGOs coming together have resulted in mass public awareness and generated sentiments across the planet.
If we take an unbiased view of it, it appears to be a tussle between developed countries led by US and developing countries led by China. If we go deep, it appears to be a clash of two world powers with larger than life egos. While in earlier times, United States could have had it their way by the leverage they had on other countries and world politics, not to mention, EU rarely breaks away from United States official policy. Since it came to the term ‘developed countries’, it actually helped bind EU and US. While it might appear China along with India is leading the massive block of developing countries, in reality, both these countries have nothing in common and their wide ranging differences haven’t helped the position of developing countries.
What may conspire in Copenhagen is a farce, a game, a show-off that world leaders are coming together and trying to reach a consensus on the climate change issue. But in reality, the gulf between the two blocks is wider than most see. It’s not just about binding or voluntary emission cuts, as the general positions suggest. It’s more political. China wants a stronghold in world politics and wants a bigger say for itself. While India is still coming to terms with its new found importance and certain leverage, more moral than political, it has on certain countries around the world. Whereas the economic turmoil around the world have deeply hurt US and EU positions, both politically and influentially. Countries around the world no longer look at the developed nations for cheaper loans or grants. Asian giants such as China and India have spread their wings far and wide in Africa, which though politically, have marginal say on world scene but have far higher number of people being affected by the perils of climate change than Western world. The ongoing economic turmoil has resulted in a shift of power and Asia is clearly the driving force on the road to recovery. But differences among themselves, China – Japan, China – India, have resulted in US taking advantage. China did announced a voluntary target of 40-45% emission cuts from their 2005 levels, while India announced 20-25%, its still upon US (17% emission cuts announced) and EU to do more. China and India will be looking for deeper emission cuts from developed countries and also for financial compensation.
The truth is that COP15 is a glimpse in the future. A preview of things to come, where no single country or group of countries hold absolute majority or say in decision making when it comes to UN. It is also a reminder that the world politics is getting multi-polar or at least bi-polar from uni-polar.
What is Kyoto?
Nov 10th
Ever since I read about Climate Change negotiations, there is one particular term which keeps attracting my attention on the internet- Kyoto Protocol.
So what is this Kyoto protocol and what is its significance in the climate change negotiations. In one line- Kyoto Protocol is the problem and perhaps also the solution.
Kyoto Protocol is a framework for United Nations Climate Change Conference proposed by Australia aimed at tackling global warming. The highlight of the protocol is that the developed countries take binding CO2 and hazardous gases emission cuts while the developing countries be let on themselves to decide the extent of emission cuts. Sounds fair.
But, Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997 and ratified in 2005. The arguement that goes against Kyoto is that the Kyoto Protocol doesn’t reflect the current realities. At the time when Kyoto was introduced, countries like India, Brazil and South Africa were no where in the global economic picture. China was considered a developing country but had no real strength or say in world politics and policy making.
Come 1009, the situation is completely changed. The United States of America (which is the only country in world which never ratified neither have any intentions of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol) is no longer the only country that exclusively call shots in the working of UNO. Countries like China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia have see multiple growth in their economies. The global economic scenario have completely changed. The recent Financial Crisis have actually shifted the balance towards east or rather Asia. With Japan, China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia growing at a slow but sturdy pace while the economies in Europe and America shrinking, the final say in global issues no longer lies with the west.
All said, the Kyoto is an outdated frameworks agreement which was introduced at a time when the current major economies were evolving the needed the space to grow, which they did. But not its time to sit down and reassess the ground realities. The world is actually divided right now between those who wants Kyoto to be dropped (led by US and EU) while those who wants to continue with it (China and India). An interesting development last month was that the developing countries led by China agreed to drop Kyoto in lieu of adequate compensation citing the example that the developed countries already had their economic prosperity achieved by the exploitation of resources and would lose almost nothing even if they were to take binding emission cuts now, whereas the economies of developing countries will suffer a massive blow. EU declared a $200 Billion compensation package, but the developing countries weren’t satisfied with that.
In the coming times, during COP15 and UNCCC, Kyoto will feature dominantly all over the media and blogging community. We must accept the world have changed and move on, but also must remember that we cannot continue our forward march on fellow human’s corpses.
Euphoria
Nov 9th
Some days which you just discard from your life diary can turn out to be probably the best ones of your life. I say this with profound knowledge and experience. Had a terrible day dealing with a Kazakh who didn’t know a word of english or arabic neither to read properly. Left office at around 9.30 compared to usual days when I wind things up by 6 or 6.30 at the max. Was so tired by the time I reached home that I just wanted to sleep- sleep, sleep and sleep. Logged on to twitter to check if there is any buzz about Oprah Winfrey and her antiques, well, yeah, but subtle, dying bits, after all, the UAE twitter community cannot stand against a huge celebrity like Oprah, regardless of her insensitive and unverified rheotric.
Ever since I got an iphone, my usual email communication has taken a massive hit. No, I don’t say iphone doesn’t have a very good email client or lagging push services, infact iphone does pretty good task of pushing your emails through in real time. But, iphone doesn’t have as better email integration as a BlackBerry do + the touch screen keyboard makes it even unattractive to reply immediately.
Because of all above reasons, I didn’t check my emails all day and was left to deal with them for the later part of evening. One by one, i started reading/answering the emails and amidst of all that replying/forwarding crazy business, I received a couple of emails, which I wasn’t expecting to come so soon. First one’s a little sketchy and can’t be discusses right now, but the second one was probably one of the most exciting 4 sentence email I ever got in my whole life:
Hello Money,
Thank you for applying to be a part of the GCCA Fresh Air Center in Copenhagen. We would love to have you! We’ll send you logistical details when we have them – for now know that your application has been accepted and you can plan to work out of the Fresh Air Center.
Warmly,
For someone like me, it was an absolutely breath-taking moment. To blog from the same platform as Greenpeace, Oxfam, 350, World Wildlife Federation etc is nothing sort of unbelievable for a 24 year old from a small city of Rajasthan, India.
What I want to do from Fresh Air Centre is to take the climate change problem to semi-urban, rural households in third world countries. I want people to think about climate change before they think about the threat eminating from a neighbour or from a country situated half way across the planet. No, its we ourselves who is the greatest enemy of human-kind, of our sustainable future. Let’s work to get our goal, let’s work to get our rightful place in history, as the nurtures of this planet, not as the destroyers.
Appeal: Please check out http://www.350.org/animation to learn more about 350 and how you can help. Remember: Our planet is burning and we need to act, act fast.
