Let's Talk Climate

On Monday the countries of the world will gather in Durban to discuss climate change.  The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol will take place from November 28 to December 9.  The climate talks will bring together world governments, international organizations and members of civil society.  It is expected that about 15,000 delegates, observers and journalists will attend the conference, with the city welcoming as many as 40,000 visitors.

Already, Durban is beginning to resemble Toronto during the G20 Summit.  High fences have been erected around the International Convention Centre and a large portion of the city centre has been cornered off for the event.  Our daily bus ride to work has doubled in time and the police force appears to have multiplied overnight.

With Kyoto set to expire at the end of next year, all eyes are on Durban to contemplate a new binding agreement to replace it.  However, all signs point to failure.  With the refusal of key countries such as the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada  to sign on to a legally binding deal, the UN talks face the danger of collapse. 

The International Energy Agency warned in its annual World Energy Outlook that if the world continues building greenhouse-gas-emitting factories and vehicles at the current pace for just the next five years, it ‘‘will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change.’’

The Globe and Mail reported,

At Durban, once again, Canada will be excluded from any serious deliberations. Canada is widely considered a climate-change miscreant. Nobody who knows the climate-change file in Canada or abroad believes the federal government’s intention to reduce emissions by 17 per cent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

So Canada’s delegates will try to keep the lowest possible profile in Durban, while the government’s spin machine will be in high gear talking up a target no one believes will be achieved, and fighting off complaints about this country’s poor record by pointing fingers at others.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the South African high commissioner to Canada Mohau Pheko criticized the Canadian position in an unusually harsh way, stating, "Are you going to follow the United States, are you also going to become a serial non-ratifier of any agreements?"

Environment Minister Peter Kent has made it clear, however, that "however acute the international pressure, we will not agree to taking on a second commitment-period target under the Kyoto Protocol."

For more information visit:
http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/
http://unfccc.int/
http://maps.unfccc.int/di/map/