Bonn climate talks: good team spirit, no victory yet
14 June 2010
A few goals were missed at last week’s UN climate talks in Bonn – but there was a much stronger team performance than in previous rounds. Negotiators from northern and southern hemisphere countries worked together in unusual formations, creating a new sense of space and movement – promising signs that they can deliver results in the future…
While the football teams of Mexico and South Africa were drawn together in the opening match of the World Cup 2010, their governments are also key players in the ‘low-carbon challenge cup’ – where it’s not about the victory of one nation, but a safe future for the entire planet.
The international climate talks at Bonn in early June were never expected to be as high-profile or crucial as those at Copenhagen last December, but seen as an important staging post to the next big climate meetings in Mexico this December and South Africa next year.
Some progress was made, but there still needs to be a basic change of attitude among some key players at the talks, says WWF’s global head of climate policy Kathrin Gutmann: “The performance of a whole range of key players in the negotiations didn’t really match the rapid shifts in investment or public opinion in favour of clean technology solutions.
“The UN climate talks still tend to discuss climate action as a burden, while more and more people in more and more countries see it as a benefit.”
WWF’s Climate Deal Oracle asks: when will we get the deal
Challenging issues – like funding, and new policies to wean economies off fossil fuels and towards a low-carbon future – were not agreed, mainly due to a lack of a champion, and the blocking tactics of oil-exporting countries like Saudi Arabia.
WWF raised some eyebrows and a few smiles at Bonn with our ‘Climate Deal Oracle’, where UN delegates were asked to say when they think we ‘should’ get a global climate deal, and when we actually ‘will’ get it. Our choices ran from ‘Mexico in 2010’ to the slightly tongue-in-cheek ‘Moon in 2128’…
The results were revealing: 54.7% of the 265 participants thought we should get a deal by Mexico this December. But 53.6% acknowledged that – realistically – we’d only get the deal in South Africa a year later. Opinions among the delegates were almost identical to those of observers and journalists.
With the World Cup spirit in mind, a number of delegates swapped their business shirts and ties for football tops in national colours. And we co-organised a spoof G8 kickabout, where world leaders played football with the planet. Let’s hope they treat it more carefully in real life!
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