The story

The final day has certainly been the oddest in my time in Poznan. In any fundamental way we are no nearer getting a just climate agreement by the end of 2009 than last year in Bali.

As I write, we are still to have the final wrapping up sessions, but it has been clear for a while that developed countries have come here with no intention of advancing the talks. Australia, Canada, Japan and the US have made no offers on cutting emissions by 2020. And no rich country has meaningfully engaged on developing country proposals for finance and technology.

Meanwhile in Brussels, the EU has reached an agreement which drives a dagger through the heart of negotiations. They have agreed to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 on 1990 levels (40 per cent is needed), and around two-thirds of this can be met through offsets rather than cutting emissions in the EU. And one mechanism in the package actually subsidises new coal power stations – the kind that will be ‘ready’ for carbon capture and storage rather than actually having any.

We enter 2009 without the leadership from Europe so urgently needed.

Inevitably the story of Poznan will be written-up as ‘Waiting for Obama’. But what a much better place we would be waiting in if Europe had lived up to its rhetoric of wanting to lead the world in tackling climate change.

Al Gore earlier used a climate change statistic that I am most scared by. Around 1.4 billion are dependent for more than half their water supplies on glaciers in the Himalayas. Those glaciers will be gone if we carry on our current path.

I am a stats person. I like the big picture they give. But ultimately it is stories that move us. I wish the thousands of delegates could meet not here in a sanitised conference centre where stories are so few, but on the shores of Legaspi City in the Philippines, where hundreds of people have to rebuild their homes every time a supertyphoon passes through.

They could stop talking and listen. Listen to those who have already had to move home because of the increased strength of typhoons. Listen to those who live on the beech and watch the sea-level risen. Listen to Virgilio Perdigon from the local university, who works so hard to help people adapt to climate change, but fears what the future could bring.

A tear falls down my cheek. Today has been a day of anger. 2009 has to be a year of hope.