Bleary eyed

The delegate from Uganda announced: “These presentations are very good, normally I sleep through them.” I had been fighting (and winning…) the urge to fall asleep as well.

The train from Cologne arrived into Poznan on Tuesday morning. I blame any closing eyelids on the sleeper train rather than the Tuesday afternoon negotiations of a long term vision of how to tackle climate change.

The Brazilian delegation grabbed my attention when they said there should not be any offsetting by rich countries to meet reduction targets.

One of the key faultines of the debate is the need for money from rich countries to help poorer countries cut emissions. Brazil and India both spoke to reiterate that they would be willing to take action on emissions if there was funding and technology available from developed countries.

The EU likes to present itself as the global leader on tackling climate change. At the same time as these meetings in Poznan, EU member states are negotiating a ‘climate and energy’ package in Brussels which could set a target to reduce EU emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, as part of a global deal on tackling climate change.

The UK, supported by other European states, is pushing for half of this target to be met through buying carbon offsets from developing countries, rather than reducing emissions in the EU.

Presenting for the EU, the French delegate showed a graph with rich countries cutting by 30 per cent by 2020, and action by developing countries additional to these cuts. With half of its 30 per cent target to be met through offsetting, this is not what the EU currently intends to do.

Brazil was making clear that money for emission reductions in developing countries needs to be in addition to action in the EU and rich countries, not as a means to allow the rich to keep on polluting.

I suspect this could be the key issue of the negotiations. A final agreement only needs to be made next year in Copenhagen. But the EU needs to at least start engaging honestly with this debate.

League table so far:
Snowflakes: 0
Polish beers: 0
Dumplings: 0