Lachrymose and Absurd

Head Shaking, Side Splitting Stuff

The Guardian newspaper has long been an ardent cheerleader of the global warming cause. 

How apt, then, for the Guardian to raise a lament over the latest UN boondogglish talkfest on combating the greatest threat to sentient life ever faced on this planet.  Now, it is worth keeping in mind that the following piece is written in all seriousness.  One cannot suppress belly laughs at the tragi-comic opera, on the one hand, and that the author of this Guardian piece does not get the joke, on the other.

Bonn climate talks end in discord and disappointment

The latest round of international climate change talks finished on Friday in discord and disappointment, with some participants concerned that important progress made last year was being unpicked.


At the talks, countries were supposed to set out a workplan on negotiations that should result in a new global climate treaty, to be drafted by the end of 2015 and to come into force in 2020. But participants told the Guardian they were downbeat, disappointed and frustrated that the decision to work on a new treaty – reached after marathon late-running talks last December in Durban – was being questioned.

China and India, both rapidly growing economies with an increasing share of global emissions, have tried to delay talks on such a treaty. Instead of a workplan for the next three years to achieve the objective of a new pact, governments have only managed to draw up a partial agenda. "It's incredibly frustrating to have achieved so little," said one developed country participant. "We're stepping backwards, not forwards."

How long will this charade continue, one wonders.  Countries left, right, and centre are backing away.  Everyone else, with an ounce of realism in their heads, can see this thing is dead and buried.  But a few folk, doubtless salaried to promote the cause, keep plugging away. 

Connie Hedegaard, the EU climate chief, said: "The world cannot afford that a few want to backtrack from what was agreed in Durban only five months ago. Durban was – and is – a delicately balanced package where all elements must be delivered at the same pace. It is not a pick and choose menu. It is very worrisome that attempts to backtrack have been so obvious and time-consuming in the Bonn talks over the last two weeks."

Wethinks Connie is in denial.  A few countries want to backtrack.  Every country outside the EU you mean.  Come on.  This is like a burlesque play where the entire the audience knows that the hero is actually a terrible fool.  But, no, wait--some progress was actually made.  More clarity was produced on "technical and legal details".  That's good. 

However, they agreed much of the detail that will be needed to extend the Kyoto protocol – currently the world's only legally binding treaty on emissions cuts – beyond 2012 when its current provisions expire. . . . Chrisiana Figueres, the top climate change official at the United Nations, who presided over the two weeks of talks, said: "Work at this session has been productive. Countries can now press on to ensure elements are in place to adopt the Doha amendment to the Kyoto protocol. I am pleased to say that the Bonn meeting produced more clarity on the protocols's technical and legal details and options to enable a smooth transition between the two commitment periods of the protocol."

That sounds weighty and momentous.  But the following paragraph puts this "progress" in context.  

However, the only major developed countries that have agreed to continue the Kyoto protocol are those of the European Union. Canada and Japan have dropped out, and the US never ratified the 1997 accord. (Emphasis, ours)

Wethinks the European Union is not going to exist in its current form by year's end.  More debt in order to pay off less developed countries will go down like cold vomit.  So much for Kyoto.  But hope springs eternal in the human breast it would seem.

Celine Charveriat, advocacy and campaigns director at Oxfam, said: "No progress was made to deliver the financial support that the world's poorest and most vulnerable need to deal with the growing impacts of climate change. It is now vital that, at the next UN climate summit in Qatar in November, rich countries commit to an initial US$10-15bn to the Green Climate Fund between 2013 and 2015, as part of a broader financial package.

"At a time when ambitious emission reductions are more urgent than ever, developed countries in Bonn made no progress to close the gap between current climate targets and what is required to avoid the worst of climate change. Developed countries must improve on their current low level of ambition and accept higher reduction targets no later than at the Qatar summit."

What part of the planet do these folk actually live on?  Disneyland?  Fantasyland?

Tove Maria Ryding, coordinator for climate policy at Greenpeace International, said: "Here in Bonn we've clearly seen that the climate crisis is not caused by lack of options and solutions, but lack of political action. It's absurd to watch governments sit and point fingers and fight like little kids while the scientists explain about the terrifying impacts of climate change and the fact that we have all the technology we need to solve the problem while creating new green jobs."

Yes, truly absurd.  But, dear Ms Ryding, you play your part so ardently, so passionately, so fulsomely.  Exquisite burlesque and parody. 

A photograph of the top climate change official at the United Nations accompanied the Guardian piece.  It says it all.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), gives a press conference on May 25, 2012, at the end of a UN climate conference in Bonn, western Germany.