Inside COP21 – Another Missile from Paris

Guest Author Uncategorized

Here is Guest Author Thom Mitchell’s latest dispatch from Paris:

Bad coffee and the smell of rats, but looks like progress?

Dear NM Insider,

On Monday, 150 world leaders issued forth to the Paris climate talks with grandiose statements about saving the planet. Most have left, because, you know, saving the planet is a part-time job.

The negotiators tasked with giving affect to their words are now pouring over every word of every letter of what is currently a 50-page draft of the new international agreement on climate change. When the 11 December deadline for the end of negotiations comes, it will set out exactly how the world-saving will, or perhaps won’t, be done.

At the time of writing – the first Thursday night of the two week summit – it’s still half-filled with the infamous [square brackets] which indicate the wording still to be agreed on. They stand in for the sleepless nights that have already started in earnest. (I saw a guy literally sleeping standing up on the train back to Paris city centre at 6pm today).

It’s a pity French coffee is so bad.

Negotiators, non-governmental observers, and a serious media scrum are spinning off into all manner of informal meetings, often in the pricey cafeterias making a killing out of impending global disaster, to discuss the square brackets and what they mean for the world’s chances of avoiding dangerous climate change, and the interests and agendas of individual nations.

The 18-hectare conference centre where the negotiating’s being done is a total circus. So it’s fitting that a boulevard which separates two rows of massive warehouses at the site in Le Bourget, on Paris’ outer fringe, is lined with kitsch plastic animals, translucent and standing in for the one’s whose future is being determined.

Ditto for the skeletal trees just outside the airport-security entrance, which watch over hundreds of busloads of people ferrying in and out of the main site each day, and to and from the train station or various side events.

An overbearing sense of artifice permeates the whole show, as different countries, not-for-profits, academics and journalists scurry through the melee. There are people in elaborate turbans, saris, suits, and pāreus; speaking French, English, and dozens of other languages, and rushing off to meetings in side rooms, plenaries and cafe corners.

Some of them, like the Pacific Islander delegates, are trying to save their people. Others, rather selfishly, their economies. But the obvious disparity in negotiating power is largely hushed up, and for countries which are both poor and large emitters of carbon, the situation is a much more complex and delicate balancing act.

Because the process is run by consensus, every country, in a way, has the ability to bugger it up by refusing to sign on to the final text. But in these early stages people are treading carefully. The problem with, say, Pacific Islanders kicking up a stink about the fact that what’s being negotiated will sink many of their homes, is that for them any deal is better than none at all. And the problem with India demanding an ambitious deal which would save them huge money on their adaptation bill, is they have domestic demands to provide ‘electricity to all’ the 300 million without it by 2030.

At this stage, as the 196 countries involved work collaboratively on the climate pact, delegates are feeling out others’ negotiating positions, and getting ready for the political crunch that comes in the second week. But hopes are genuinely high that the talks will produce a document coherent, ambitious, and credible enough to kickstart the shift towards a lower carbon world.

The focus is largely on process – we know we’re not going to get even to a two degree goal, inadequate though the science tells us that is – so there’s a huge emphasis on setting up a system that will ratchet up over time, and leave the door open to greater ambition later.

But it could easily be another furphy.

Earlier today, renowned climate scientist and former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen (pictured below), told me he’d come to his first ever climate talks because he smelt a rat.

He said he thought governments would come to the conference, and leave claiming they’d made serious progress. They’ve done it plenty of times before, but some estimates say emissions are up by more than 60 per cent since the first major climate conference.

“Unlike the ozone problem where the governments actually took some actions to solve the problem, in the case of the climate problem, they’re not taking action,” he said. “Young people and future generations are screwed if we stay on that path, [but] trying to communicate against this headwind of fossil fuel propaganda is very difficult.”

There will be an update on key bones of contention in the morning, and it should become a fair bit clearer how things are progressing. But history tells us that in spite of all the careful planning and soaring rhetoric, the real decisions will be made in a schism towards the end of the second week.

I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers, Thom

503 thoughts on “Inside COP21 – Another Missile from Paris”

  1. Had our usual Tuesday once-a-month workshop in the nursery today..it went well, as usual..but there was one couple, a new pair, that turned out to be a very strange encounter..a very different old couple!..
    I;m still at work now , so I’ll tell you about it later when I’m back home!

  6. CTar.

    Indeed. Some interesting reactions:

  7. David Rowe on Turnbull’s innovation package.

    The article that goes with it – the usual ‘isn’t He just wonderful’ crap, really.

    http://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/innovation-package-finally-delivers-holistic-approach-to-innovation-20151207-glhpgq?&utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-14omn0055-optim-nnn:nonpaid-27062014-social_traffic-all-organicpost-nnn-afr-o&campaign_code=nocode&promote_channel=social_twitter

  9. Monckton has finally gone so far up himself that he’s everted:

    monckton said Mr Abbott was a “Mahatma – or great soul” who should rise above Australian politics and even climate change issues and devote himself to eradicating world poverty.
    “I would not waste his time on the global-warming question; leave that to the likes of us who do the science, write the papers.”

    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/un-climate-conference/paris-un-climate-conference-2015-tony-abbott-was-brought-down-by-the-un-christopher-monckton-says-20151207-glhtco.html

  11. Monkton should be locked up somewhere secure for his own safety. The man is a raving loony.

  12. FFS!

    Andrew Bolt to star in ABC documentary on Indigenous recognition

    Conservative commentator and vocal ABC critic Andrew Bolt is set to star in a new ABC series about the recognition of indigenous Australians in the constitution.
    Bolt announced in a post on his blog today: “I am going to be very busy on a project for the ABC, of all things, over the next couple of weeks

    http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/andrew-bolt-to-star-in-abc-documentary-on-

    This is what happens when a conservative (and then some) government stacks the ABC board with right-wing nutjobs.

    What next? Fred Nile doing a documentary on gay and lesbian lifestyles?

  17. If you have access to Facebook please have a look at the link and the video. These men are an inspiration. It’s so refreshing to see the work they do. It puts all those haters to shame.

    Anglican Parish of Gosford:

    What a privilege to spend an afternoon with the Brothers from Homeless Run, known as the “White Coats” by the people they help; the homeless, youth, women and children affected by domestic violence, pensioners … and anyone else needing a helping hand. Three years ago Bilal and his wife decided they wanted to help young people, now he and his friend Kamel, with the help of their wives and friends, manage a charity with over 40 volunteers that runs services 7 days per week. A recent well publicised incident has not affected their outlook or dedication to their work; this wonderful team of inspiring young men are just getting on with the job of serving the community

    https://www.facebook.com/Homeless-run-1518035228466538/

  20. Fiona
    I once came perilously close to being homeless, the kids and I had to leave our home and rent somewhere else, and it was very, very difficult to find anywhere at all. The local womens refuge would have taken us in, but that was not going to be a permanent home. We were very lucky we found a flat before the worst happened. Through that experience I gained an understanding of how easy it is to become homeless, especially if you don’t have contacts who can help you get through the real estate rental maze. I count myself very lucky to have had those contacts. I have the deepest admiration for the angels who help the homeless.

  21. Leone,

    I have not had anything like your experience, and all other things being equal I almost certainly won’t.

    That doesn’t mean I don’t have real concern.

    When DD had to choose a charity project when she was in Year 10, she opted for one of several organisations that (how can I put it best?) processed unused food from restaurants etc., into pies, pasties, and other manifestations that were then distributed to the various charities that do the homeless food runs. It was, for a teenager of her background, pretty hard work once a fortnight on a Saturday, but she learned a lot from it.

    I don’t have the time or the stamina to do that. However, watching that video this evening, I’m wondering about some way of organising “personal” packs, not just for women (though that was my first thought), but for adults. I do, after all, have access to a fairly big organisation some of whose members might be prepared to cough up a few dollars each week for basics.

    Even better would be to start lobbying at all levels of government for decent accommodation for those who are suddenly homeless.

    Meanwhile, I have identified numerous things – mostly kitchen stuff, but also some more bed linen and towels (courtesy of DD) – that need to be washed, which will then be donated to the wonderful refugee house PJF found.

    What’s more, having damaged my right arm last week, and with my left arm still only capable of light work, this means calling on the services of my kind young neighbour over the road, who has just been told that the local Young Libthugs’ school doesn’t need her next year.

  22. DD has just told me that the work I am offering to my neighbour is charity (she meant it as a pejorative).

    Does anyone agree?

  23. Fiona
    I don’t think it’s charity at all. You are employing someone to do a specific job and paying them for their services.

  24. Leone,

    Thank you. I have, if you haven’t realised it, great respect for your opinion.

    Especially when it chimes with mine 😉

  25. Click to access essential_report_151208.pdf

    http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/412733,analysis-the-destruction-of-the-nbn.aspx

    http://indaily.com.au/news/2015/12/08/breaking-after-two-decades-union-trailblazers-fought-her-final-campaign/

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2015/12/08/innovation-havent-we-been-here-before/

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/business-it/offgrid-suburb-a-perfect-storm-for-energy-giants-20151207-glh7l5.html

  26. Fiona

    As you are “winged” at the moment then it is certainly not charity. Just great fortune for you to have someone living near by able to help you out.

  27. Fiona..If she’s a catholic, it’s acceptable to offer her “charity”…charity is ok with the Micks…if she’s a Lutheran…she wouldn’t accept the work as it’s beneath her status..if she’s a Presbyterian, she’d reject your washing as being from a sinner and most probably tainted with your sins…If she’s an atheist, she most probably is also a pragmatist and needs the income..

  30. Good morning Dawn Patrollers. Early posting today – I woke up at 1:30 and knew I wouldn’t get back to sleep.

    It’s official – Abbott is delusional. And dangerous.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-i-would-have-won-the-next-election-20151208-glifg7.html
    Kelly O’Dwyer opens up about life inside the cabinet.
    http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/growing/kelly-odwyer-says-turnbulls-cabinet-can-be-brutal-20151207-glhynh.html
    Subtlety doesn’t seem to figure in Trump’s armoury. And he has good company in the remaining Republican candidates.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/donald-trump-calls-for-muslims-to-be-barred-from-entering-us-20151207-glhws0.html
    Coles chief issues a warning to its suppliers. Again.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/coles-chiefs-treasure-island-warning-to-suppliers-20151208-glijm3.html
    Has Apple got too smart by half with its obsession with phone thinness?
    http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apple-debuts-its-own-battery-extender-for-iphone-6s-20151208-glis32.html
    Something to be proud about?
    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/un-climate-conference/paris-un-climate-conference-2015-australia-ranked-third-to-last-for-emissions-20151207-glhtxf.html
    Not a good day yesterday for the reputation of the Victorian police force.
    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/boys-will-be-boys-toxic-sexist-police-culture-haunts-victims-20151207-glhggg.html
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/08/police-chief-commissioner-concealed-priests-sex-abuse-crimes-inquiry-hears
    The creative (innovative perhaps?) accounting behind Turnbull’s and Pyne’s innovation announcement.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/borrowing-cutting-and-boosting-the-creative-accounting-behind-innovation-plans-11b-budget-20151208-glijnm.html
    Oh dear. Has civil war broken out in the Coalition?
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/ian-macfarlane-defection-liberals-weigh-bid-to-poach-warren-truss-seat-20151208-gli1gl.html

  31. Section 2 . . . with Cartoon Corner

    Ross Gittins looks at the workings of the capitalist system.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-we-all-fall-for-phishing-schemes-20151207-glhy2d.html
    “View from the Street” examines Clive Palmer’s current financial woes.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/view-from-the-street-palmers-political-career-heads-the-way-of-the-titanic-ii-20151208-gliler.html
    “Work for the dole” is not working and here’s an alternative approach.
    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/reward-is-better-than-punishment-a-work-for-the-dole-alternative,8467
    Big dollars ride on the festivals of death (like Stereosonic).
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/12/07/big-dollars-riding-festivals-death/
    McDonalds has been named and shamed over junk food advertising aimed at minors.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/12/07/mcdonalds-junk-food-child_n_8745978.html?utm_hp_ref=australia
    David Pope with Hockey doing it hard.

    Maybe Ron Tandberg’s on to something here?

    Alan Moir, after a long break, takes us to the troubled USA.

    Mark Knight and the streets of Melbourne.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/07de533daeabf12333fe96fa2757a4a5?width=1024&api_key=zw4msefggf9wdvqswdfuqnr5
    David Rowe has Joe arriving in the US.

  34. … or not:

    “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” was conceived as the events of 9/11 unfolded and Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli walked the streets of Moscow. Struck by the outpouring of grief he observed, a memorial with an image of a tear formed in his mind. Shortly after the attacks, Tsereteli visited ground zero and looked to New Jersey’s waterfront for an appropriate site for a monument honoring victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

    Bayonne was a fitting location; the city was an arrival point for many New York City evacuees on 9/11, a staging area for rescuers, and offered a direct view of the Statue of Liberty and the former World Trade Center towers.

    A gift from Tsereteli and the Russian people, the memorial is made of steel sheathed in bronze. Standing 100 feet high, its center contains a jagged tear. In it hangs a 40-foot stainless steel teardrop, representing sadness and grief over the loss of life, but also hope for a future free from terror. Etched in granite on an 11-sided base are the names of the nearly 3,000 killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

    Click to access Memorial_Brochure.pdf

  35. Coles managing director John Durkan says multinational food and grocery suppliers are still treating Australia like “treasure island”, charging consumers premium prices to boost earnings and fund their Asian operations.

    In a blunt warning to suppliers, Mr Durkan says Coles will not only demand suppliers justify price rises by proving that their costs are increasing, but is prepared to replace branded goods with private label goods if branded prices rise too fast.

    In other words, the Aldi business model. Coles and Woolworths are trying to defend their pile of treasure from suppliers that want their share, and competitors eating their lunch.

  36. Sky News is as barking mad as ever. I’m only ever made aware of it when they run ads on the Weather Channel, but I can tell you that this week Paul Murray is interviewing Abbott – from what I can tell it’s mostly about how other people have let Abbott down – and Graham Richardson is doing an extended puff piece on how wonderful Brian Houston is. Yes, an infomercial for Hillsong. Happy days.

    I try to mute those ads when they come on, but some slip past.

  37. Abbott , our very own Hiroo Onada.

    Hiroo Onoda, Japanese soldier who long refused to surrender

    Onoda’s three decades spent in the jungle – initially with three comrades and finally alone……….in the jungles of the Philippines for nearly three decades, refusing to believe that World War II had ended

    ………Onoda and a few fellow holdouts hid in the jungles, dismissing messages saying the war was over.

    For 29 years, he survived on food gathered from the jungle or stolen from local farmers.

    After losing his comrades to various circumstances, Onoda was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in 1974.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/17/world/asia/japan-philippines-ww2-soldier-dies/

  38. BK

    My, you were early this morning, I think that will call for a Poppy nap today. I hope you didn’t wake all your critters to feed them too early. 🙂

  39. Fiona

    I think what you are doing for your young neighbour is wonderful, and you will probably never know just how grateful she is, and the benefits and self esteem she will gain from helping you in return.

  40. Aguirre

    Thank you for the Abbott and Murray alert, will check it out. Uber Lib Shill conversing with Deluded NE could make for surrealist comedy gold .

  42. Tandberg’s illustration of the following letter

    i’ve got a great idea to support Malcolm Turnbull’s request for start-up initiatives. How about we create a car industry?
    Greg Oates, Huon Creek

  43. Marie Antoinette Bishop – “Let them eat coal”.

    No, this is not satire.

    Coal critical to alleviate hunger: Bishop

    Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told a sidelines event at major climate talks in Paris that fossil fuels will be critical to reducing poverty and hunger for years to come.

    Speaking at an Indonesian event on transitioning to a low carbon economy, Ms Bishop said fossil fuels like coal would remain a significant part of the global energy mix for the “foreseeable future”.

    “Barring some technological breakthrough, fossil fuels will remain critical to promoting prosperity, growing economies, alleviating hunger for years to come,” she told the event in Paris on Tuesday

    http://www.sbs.com.au/news/storystream/coal-critical-alleviate-hunger-bishop

    Pushing the Turnbull government’s discredited policies for all she is worth. So very embarrassing. I’ll be cringing for a long time after reading those words.

  44. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but in the festive season, it can be a damn nuisance! So when our usual supplier of real Christmas trees stopped supplying, it became incumbent upon yours’ t to find another. This may seem a simple job from where you are in the leafy ‘burbs of the big smoke, but from where I sit, it is a long haul ;N.S.E.or West !

    So imagine my surprise and delight when that stalwart of local civilization and all things gourmet spotted an add selling the “real-deal” at a not too distant town…A few ding-a-lings later I was booked to meet and greet our new supplier at the front of the Lutheran church where said trees were to be purchased….you little beauty!

    Of course, I pictured a small booth surrounded by red buckets with a tree in each one and a price tag accordingly..but no, I was greeted by a church lay-person holding her purse, a receipt and a pointing finger to the front paddock planted with live, growing pine trees at various heights all in rows and appearing to be marching in line obediently toward the chapel on the hilltop!

    Now, I am aware there are some of you on this blog who, caught in choosing between sentimental attachment and clutter, will cast away metaphorical centuries of sentiment for the sight of a clear square metre of floor-space…well, good luck to you!…I am different, no cold-chiseled practicality for this boy, and if I told you that as a child, when I had eaten that apple from my primary school lunch box, put there by the caring hand of my mother, I would not discard the core anyplace but put it back into my bag to be rested on the verge of the driveway to my home…it came from my home and there it will rest out it time till eternity!..one can’t be fairer than that, I say..after all, I’m almost a Buddhist you know.

    So standing there next to this lady of petite middle age and looking like a stereotype of what a Lutheran lay-person ought to look like, you know, that ‘Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” school marmish style..a bit fidgety, a tad ..not stutter, but rather tremulously correct in the choosing of words…and one is given to wonder whether perhaps (and NOT being gender specific, mind you!) such religious die-hards would therapeutically benefit from a good weekend of wild wanton, lascivious ‘rogering’ on a more regular basis?…So standing there looking at all these smart, erect trees I came over a tad sentimental toward their fate.

    “And how old are they?” I asked.

    “T,three..no..perhaps..f,four years” the lady replied.

    And a image immediately crossed my mind..and I reflected upon it out loud, applying to my voice, for emphasis, that singular sound used by that erstwhile television gardener ; Alan Searle..you remember?…that involuntary whistle on any word with an “S”in it. I confess I watched his show regularly once trying to relive that moment when he spoke a sentence loaded with such S words that I was more enthralled with than even the “St. Crispan Day Speech” by Bill Shakespear ..I can never forget it…:

    “ When pruning ros.ses.s..I s.select s.some s.sharp s.secatuers.s, s.sterais.sed in a s.solution of s.sodium Metabis.s.sulphite…s.success.ssss is.s ass.ssured!”

    Richard Brannagh , eat your heart out!

    I gazed loving over the forest of saplings..

    “It s.seems.s a s.shame to cut them..I mean, they look like they are marching up to the chapel like little apos.stles.s of Jes.sus.s ……but I’ll have that one..”

    “Oh” she breathed..”Aloysius!”

  45. I’m a bit sick of MacDonalds bashing and whining groups of ‘concerned’ parents. If you are a parent and don’t like their advertising or their food the answer is simple. Tell your sprogs they can’t have it. You are the parent, you are in charge of what your sprogs eat and what money they have to spend. Just say no.

    Not long ago Maccas wanted to open a new shop in an out-of-town suburb. A lot of the locals there liked the idea, especially the oldies in the retirement village. You might be surprised to know this, but oldies here just love going to Maccas, especially for Saturday breakfast, or for coffee and morning tea. The village residents looked forward to having their own Maccas on their doorsteps. But it was not to be. A bunch of ‘concerned parents’ kicked up the most enormous stink. Marches, placards, the lot. The new Maccas was to be just across the road from a Catholic school complex – a primary school, a junior high school and a senior school. Maccas, the parents said,even the parents whose kids went to other schools, would make their kids fat. Just how this weight increase was to occur was never explained. It must have been something to do with inhaling the fumes from freshly cooked chips as they drove their cherubs past in their four wheel drives twice a day, to school and back, because these parents swore Maccas evil food would never tough the pristine lips of their pampered darlings. Or were they saying they were such weak parents they could not say ‘No!’ to their kids?

    Maccas gave up and went away and a medical centre opened on that spot instead.

    But here’s the thing. Since when have parents been so weak, so useless, that they can’t simply drive past a Maccas without succumbing to the whinging from the back seat? The first Maccas opened here when my kids were still at school and that shop was right at the back of their school. We drove past it a few times a week. My kids were told we just could not afford to go there, after a few ‘can we go to Maccas’ requests met with a sharp ‘No!’ they learned not to ask. So why can’t parents do that these days? What is wrong with them?

    And something else – I see a lot of kids walking past to school or to the high school buses here. A good number of them eat what passes for breakfast on the walk. Toast, biscuits, that revolting Up and Go rubbish (known in this household as ‘Up and Throw’ because after you drink it you want to throw up) and most popular with the teenagers. cans of Red Bull and similar energy drinks. It’s quite the thing these days to send the kids off to school with a can of high caffeine sugary soft drink because deluded parents believe it will help their little darlings concentrate. It also makes their kids fat and sets them up for health problems later in life. What the frack is wrong with parents?

    Energy drink link to diabetes: Combination of caffeine and sugar causes glucose and insulin levels to ‘spike’ in teenagers
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3343743/Energy-drink-link-diabetes-Combination-caffeine-sugar-causes-glucose-insulin-levels-spike-teenagers.html

  48. Jaycee you have to be tough or insensitive to chop down a named plant.

    As kids we were advised to never name the pig that we had to haul pumpkins to. It was always called “Christmas Dinner” and was replaced annually while we summered at the beach

  49. My sister noticed that small children don’t actually like the taste of Maccas but when they start kinder or school they want to be grown up like the kids in the Maccas ads that are shown at the start of each school year. The ads show kids being collected from school and rewarded with a hamburger on their way home.

  50. billie…: ” It was always called “Christmas Dinner” “…..Sylvester cat : “Helllooo breakthest!”.

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