Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Courtesy of: Joshua Wiese, 2011
Every two weeks we are proud to recognize one of the 300 partner organizations that make up our the TckTckTck global climate alliance.
This week we are pleased to share an interview with Joshua Wiese, Project Director of Adopt a Negotiator (let’s include the link again). Thanks so much to Joshua for taking time out of tracking the UN climate negotiations in Panama to answer our questions about expectations from the UN climate process this year and the power of youth in driving negotiations.
TCK: As you mentioned in your post on Adopt a Negotiator earlier this week, this is the 9th round of UN climate negotiations you’ve attended. What is different about the process this time?
JOSHUA WIESE: When we try to deal with climate change, we’re wrestling with huge and important issues that touch every aspect of our lives. It’s a high stakes game. We already know what the impacts of climate change look like. We also know that failing here will lead to devastating impacts on people’s lives around the world. But success has impacts too – and country’s have been locked in a fight over what that success looks like. Who acts first? Who does how much? Who pays? In the past, we saw a lot of jockeying and positioning and finger pointing in anticipation of a global deal that would answer those questions.
This time, most countries have decided that while a global deal is crucial and work toward it is underway, they won’t put all the important pieces together in Durban. Instead of agreeing nothing until everything is agreed, they’re working on individual building blocks. Countries are collaborating more than they’re fighting and we’re making important progress as a result. But they’re punting on some of the most difficult political issues, which has costly and dangerous impacts that affect all of us.
TCK: In a year when so much energy has been focused on the efforts of individual countries, regions and businesses to tackle climate change, is the UN climate process more or less important?
JOSHUA WIESE: The UN climate process isn’t actually where the action happens, it’s where we add it all up. Without action by countries, regions, businesses, and individuals around the world, we have nothing to add. But the problem is global and that action has to add up to global solutions that are fair, ambitious enough to match the problem, and binding so we know it delivers. Part of the reason we didn’t get that in Copenhagen is because we didn’t have enough action already.
Since then, we’ve seen significant action in countries around the world; and that action feeds directly into our collective ability to deliver solutions on a global level at the UN. China’s new 5 year plan is helping them slow their emissions relative to their economic growth, giving them confidence to join global efforts to combat climate change without jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty. The E.U.’s work on putting a price on carbon, building and constantly working to improve the environmental integrity of tools like carbon-markets, and increasing their emission reduction pledges are all steps that help stand-up key pieces of a global climate deal. Australia is debating legislation that will have massive implications in an international context.
Alternatively, the countries without national action or who haven’t aligned climate action with their country’s national interests are killing us. The Saudis try to sabotage anything that might reduce oil demand without being compensated for lost projected profits. Canada decided to make tar sands the driver for their economic growth for the foreseeable future and has turned its back on global climate efforts like the Kyoto Protocol. The US’ failure to raise the priority of climate issues enough to get national legislation while being one of the largest contributors to the problem is a huge barrier to international efforts.
More action at every level is key, but it has to add up globally and the UN climate talks are where that happens.
TCK: Adopt a Negotiator provides youth with unprecedented access to the UN climate negotiation process and the negotiators deciding our global climate future. How important will youth voices be leading up to COP17 in South Africa later this year?
JOSHUA WIESE: Youth have the most at stake in this, and over the last few years they’ve worked hard around the world to get more organized, and much more effective. Here in Panama, we have a really small Adopt a Negotiator team and there’s a small youth presence generally, but we’ll be present in force in Durban. And young people will be increasingly present, engaged and effective at upcoming negotiations where their future is at stake.
Africa in particular, has a very large youth population. It also bears a much bigger brunt of the impacts of climate change. For instance, there are more than 12 million people whose lives are at risk because of an unprecedented draught in East Africa right now – most of them are “youth”. This generation is experiencing first-hand the impacts of unsustainable development. But all of Africa’s needs are also opportunities to step up and forge solutions. With the international tools for adaptation and technology transfer and finance that youth will help deliver in Durban, this generation of young people will show the world how to turn those opportunities into lasting change.
TCK: If you could distill down your hopes for the climate negotiations in Panama and South Africa this year to one statement, what would they be?
JOSHUA WIESE: Ha! After all that, you think I can give an answer in one concise statement? I’ll give it my best. It’s nothing profound, but couldn’t be more important:
I hope the climate negotiations in Panama and Durban deliver essential progress in building the tools, resources and collective will that we need in this long and difficult fight against climate change.
…OK, I’ll keep working on that.
TCK: What is the best way for Tck alliance members to follow the negotiations and support the efforts of Adopt a Negotiator trackers?
JOSHUA WIESE: We’re blogging and posting video updates on www.adoptanegotiator.org, so definitely check the website for frequent updates all week while we’re in Panama and throughout the Climate Talks in Durban. We’ll also be tweeting with the hashtag #UNFCCC. Help spread the word and feature our content on your blogs and websites, especially if you are addressing youth audiences and other interested audiences for whom Adopt-A-Negotiator’s content is designed. The idea is to engage youth and other people in climate action, and we hope to be an informative and appealing entry point for new and bigger audiences as we support TckTckTck’s efforts to grow the global climate movement.
La entrada Joshua Wiese: Adopt a Negotiator Project aparece primero en TckTckTck.