Pacific Environment in Poznan
This month I joined over 11,000 others at the 14th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP-14), in Poznan, Poland. Reactions from the enormous conference ranged from disappointment at the lack of progress in negotiations to enthusiasm and hope. We’re hoping that the incoming Obama Administration will bring new international leadership and end the eight years of obstructionism that has characterized the Bush Administration’s approach to climate change.
In Poznan, Pacific Environment focused on the funding needed for countries to meet their obligations under the climate change convention (especially for climate change mitigation and adaptation). Most environmental organizations and developing countries want to see the mechanisms controlling funding remain controlled by the climate change convention’s Conference of Parties, which reflects the wide and more democratic membership of the UN. However, some developed countries support funds under the control of the World Bank Group, over which they have more control. This is despite the fact that the World Bank has a record of financing projects that worsen climate change and that otherwise do social and environmental harm.
Pacific Environment participated in two statements on this topic that were released at COP-14:
http://members.foei.org/en/campaigns/climate/kyoto-protocol/world-bank-out-of-climate-change-finance
http://www.ifg.org/events/copenhagen2008/Global_Climate_Fund_Poznan.pdf
Meanwhile, governments world-wide continue to subsidize harmful fossil fuel projects that undermine their own commitments under the climate change convention. It reminded me that continued grass-roots resistance to these projects by Pacific Environment and its partners, wholly outside of the massive and cumbersome climate change convention processes, is as crucial as ever.
Tags: climate change, Climate Talks, community partners, energy subsidies, Export Credit Agencies, Finance, fossil fuels, sustainable development
