It’s somewhere close
to midnight here in Durban,
and most of the attendees have been sent home. The most senior officials from
each country are staying to negotiate. This includes Ministers, Ambassadors,
Senior Negotiators and I suppose their immediate support staff. Given that
there are 190+ countries, that means that 1,000 people are staying to debate on
through the night.
The official end to
the conference occurred at 5pm this afternoon (Friday). They stopped the clocks
to allow for more time to try and reach a deal. Even with just the high level
group it will be tough to reach a deal with 1,000 voices and 190+ agendas. But
with that many people reports leak out to us. One of them I found disturbing.
Around the globe there
are Green MPs elected. Australia,
Brazil, Canada, etc.
including lots from European countries. It was green colleagues from Belgium that relayed to me a note about Canada’s
performance in the high level (closed door) meetings. Late in the evening, our
Minister of the Environment made negative remarks about the rapidly developing
countries (Brazil, South Africa, India
and China
or BASIC).
India responded saying that Canada
had no moral authority to speak on the matter because our emissions were so
much higher than the BASIC countries, the BASIC countries were already doing
more than Canada had despite
the economic disparity and that Canada
had rejected its responsibility. Ouch.
Diplomacy will not
allow these remarks to make it on to the official record. So while it is
pleasantries on the outside, the undercurrent here is one where Canada is no
longer held in respect.
Canada - we used to punch above our
weight. Here it seems we are punching below the belt.
Yours, a north by northwest scientist / politician reporting
from the south by southeast
John Streicker
ps Canada
once again won the Colossal Fossil Award. Now five years running. A young Inuk, Jordan
Kornek symbolically received the award on behalf of Canada. Reports are that MPs
laughed in the house when word reached the floor that we had been receiving
these dubious awards. Laughed. Shame on us.