We are now one week
into the Cancun
climate talks. Yes, progress comes at a
glacial pace--sometimes it feels like it
doesn’t come at all--and the signals here
are mixed on just what will happen when
the traveling carnival known as the COP
comes to a close.
On Saturday, the Chair
released her draft text of one of the two
main tracks of the negotiations - the Long-term
Cooperative Agreement, that deals with the
developing countries and industrialized
countries outside of the Kyoto Protocol
– like the US.
The new text distills
the most pressing issues the negotiators
are facing in Cancun into options for the
ministers, who arrive today. Our review
shows that the options represent the most
extreme positions held by governments. Now
we need ministers to decide on a Third Way
- a solution that builds momentum toward
sealing a strong climate deal next year
in South Africa.
There are several issues
that remain in doubt. The emissions reductions
commitments on the table are still insufficient
to the problem. This is known as the Gigatonne
Gap, and it must be closed. To get there,
developed countries need first to admit
they have a problem – at the very least
they must set up a process to address the
gap between their rhetoric over their concern
over climate change and their willingness
to commit to cutting their pollution.
Also in flux is the
fate of a mechanism to save tropical forests,
known as REDD. The REDD text, as it stands,
leaves the door open for risky, small-scale
offset projects that could threaten forests
and our climate. These projects could slice
and dice forests and sell them off to polluters
who use them as an excuse to continue business
as usual. Now that the ministers have arrived
they must re-insert the safeguards and principles
that ensure REDD is effective, rather than
selling tropical forests off to the highest
bidder.
Other issues that hang
in the balance are financial support for
developing countries to adapt to a changing
climate, how soon money will be available
to start mitigation action for poorer countries,
keeping dirty energy out of any deal, and
closing loopholes that allow countries to
exaggerate their emissions reduction.
Week two will see power
plays, new alliances, and some serious dodging
of commitments. But one things is clear:
This is not Copenhagen. The feeling here
is one of hopeful optimism and the COP’s
Mexican hosts are stressing transparency.
Expectations may be lowered, but the urgency
remains. The only way to solve the global
problem of climate change is a global deal
that ensures strong cooperative, strong
action. The politics may be hard to overcome,
but without an agreement through this process,
the future of the planet remains in peril.
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The Climate Tribes
Yes, it's that time
of year again. The annual climate negotiations
are upon us and last week government negotiators,
scientists, ngos, industry, other diverse
groups, and me, arrived in Cancun, Mexico
to have our say. Now with only four days
to go you would imagine that most issues
have been sorted, but that is not the case.
But of course there is hope. Ministers have
just arrived. It is these guys and not the
negotiators who will make the actual political
decisions on all aspects of the talks.
I am here as part of
the Greenpeace Forest team. And forests
are a big issue this week. Indeed it is
crunch time for agreement on just how the
world will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
from deforestation. This is what is meant
by REDD. What is needed here is the establishment
of a mechanism at a national level that
reduces emissions whilst at the same time
protecting indigenous peoples'rights and
biodiversity.
At times it can be depressing
watching the slow progress. However, it
is probably fair to say that there has been
a noticeable improvement so far in Cancun
in the atmosphere that has existed for the
past year since the conclusion of the miserable
Copenhagen climate summit.
And its not all talk,
not for the NGOs anyway and certainly not
for Greenpeace. We have been busy -- the
climate rescue balloon over the Chichen
Itza Mayan pyramid, a visit to a local Mayan
forest to meet with the local community
(descendants of the Maya) to see how they
sustainably manage their forest, free diving
to an undwerwater sculptor park, and much
more.
With only 4 days to
go the pressure is on. The forest team is
working as hard as they ever have in their
lives before. We made some gains during
the first week. Now we are working to keep
what we have gained, and of course, strengthen
it. But as always at these types of international
governmental negotiations it is almost impossible
for a small group of people (there are 10
in the team) to stay on top of what each
government is thinking, and saying, and
sometimes even doing.
We need to speak with
them to find out what they think of any
particular proposal and then brief them
on our position (protecting the forests
and saving the climate and in the process
of doing so making the planet a better place
for all) and unfortunately in too many cases
then having to heavily lobby them to gain
their support.
Its all about leadership.
Leadership that does not take a narrow view
of the negotiations. Leadership to lead
us away from fossil fuels and deforestation
and climate catastrophe.
Its all about saving
the planet.
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Supermarkets Want Responsibly-Caught
Tuna. Can the Pacific Provide?
Retailers have a major
role in protecting the world’s oceans -
they sell the majority of the world’s caught
fish to the public. One might think that
they would act to ensure consumers are not
unsuspectingly eating fish species (and
seafood industries) into extinction. However,
a lot of what goes down the check-out line
these days is still, in most parts of the
world, unsustainable. For years, Greenpeace
has been urging retailers to step up and
not sell species that are overfished and
caught with unsustainable fishing methods.
By forcing changes in the fishing industry,
retailers can actively help us create healthy,
living oceans for future generations.
I am attending the WCPFC
meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii all week listening
to major fishing nations, coastal states
and the Pacific Island Countries discuss
ways to better manage the Pacific region’s
dwindling tuna populations and the waters
that are home to so much other marine life.
It is day three and there haven’t been many
concrete decisions made here to address
the oceans crisis posed by rapidly disappearing
tuna. It’s amazing that these meetings take
place and many people have no idea that
they are even taking place- strange given
that so much is at stake. Hundreds of millions
of people around the world depend on our
oceans- and tuna is a key food source for
so many. In just six decades, we’ve wiped
out so many tuna— a food security and economic
disaster in the making unless bodies like
the WCPFC act now. What usually happens
in these meetings is that fishing nations
are lobbied by their fishing industries,
bow down to this pressure and compromise
on discussions about fishing quotas: putting
further in jeopardy the future of fish,
our oceans and eventually, the people who
need them for food and income.
But, there is good news!
Today, we announced that several supermarkets
in Germany, Austria and Australia have committed
to not sell tinned tuna caught using one
of the most wasteful fishing methods out
there: purse seine fishing on Fish Aggregation
Devices or FADs. The problem with products
caught with FADs is that along with the
individual species the fishing boats set
out to catch, juveniles of other tuna species
get netted and killed, as well as turtles,
sharks and other marine life.
Just check out this
picture of a poor whale shark on a tuna
purse seine vessel. Sometimes, whale sharks
are even used as FADs themselves as they
are slow swimmers and tuna gather around
them for protection. Just a few weeks ago,
we released results of genetic testing that
showed many tinned tuna products contain
a mixed of species and sometimes different
species to what their label says. All this
is also linked to FADs- which are indiscriminate
as juveniles of different species get caught
and mixed into the holds of the ships and
once frozen become indistinguishable.
We hope the WCPFC delegates
hear the news of increasing consumer and
retailer demand for sustainable tuna and
make decisions that can help guarantee future
supplies of fish. Banning the use of FADs
in purse seine fisheries would help make
this a reality, as would creating marine
reserves for tunas and other marine life.
Let’s see if the Pacific and the WCPFC can
step up to the challenge the retailers have
now issued – provide us with sustainable
tuna: necessary for the future of the Pacific
and its people!
Watch this space: we
will report the outcomes, in the meantime
please make sure you choose and request
your retailers for sustainably caught tuna!
Sari Tolvanen is a Greenpeace
International oceans campaigner, originally
from Finland and currently based in Amsterdam.
