04 January 2012
From the perspective of diplomats and politicians, coming home from Durban with the outlook for a deal between 194 nations on something that binds them all, legally, passes the test of being an ‘historic achievement’. More relevant to all of us: this ‘success’ means that they have in effect agreed to fix the world on a path to at least 3,5 degree Celsius warming, probably more. Which basically means that for example South Europe will probably become an extension of the Sahara and agriculture in Africa will be virtually non-existent (some even say 99% less).
Scientists simply concluded that the Dirty Durban Deal equals to Catastrophic Climate Change. Take a closer look. Durban was supposed to deliver three things: a) a second commitment period for the weak and woefully insufficient Kyoto Protocol, b) a clear outlook on a legally binding emission reductions deal for all nations and c) a fund that actually also has money in it to help poor countries partly cope with the damage that mainly the rich countries made (70% of all anthropogenic carbon emission today in the air come from the industrial countries). The result? There’s nothing substantial on paper on the first goal, just another political accord and the promise of three countries to step out of the already weak Kyoto agreement: Canada, Russia and Japan. Leaving the EU, who emits 10 to 15% of all global emissions, as the last small club committing themselves to legally binding but insufficient greenhouse gas emission cuts. At a pace about halve of what scientists say is needed. The rest of the world can continue the carbon party until at least 2020. Then, all nations will be part of a global plan to reduce emissions. This ‘legally binding deal’ is framed in a way that it actually isn’t legally binding at all. Just legal, whatever that means. It comes way too late and says nothing on the scale of cuts. In line with what Naomi Klein recently put forward, the constitutional right to freedom of a US citizen (and his lifestyle) is still considered more important than letting the whole of Africa starve to death, or making the Southern coastline of the US inhabitable. Finally, there were no new bright idea’s to fill the fund needed to help poor countries adapt. Unless one defines the extension of tricks to channel money from a failed carbon market to an empty box ‘a bright new idea’. Carbon market prices already crashed from 30 euro/ton to 7 euro/ton. Most people agree that a minimum price of 50 euro/ton is needed as an incentive for change. Climate Justice Now summarized it all in the title of its press release: the only thing Durban did was to establish Climate Apartheid on a global scale. Which fluently brings us from the surreal non-fiction in Durban to a very real science-fiction book of a UK family dealing with the first year of carbon rationing.
This article was from an ANPED bulletin...one of my favourites to always hit the mark
Dirty Love, 1990, Thunder
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