Hey everybody,
today the news around the world with regard to climate change are driven by the statements of the Heads of State present at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. So what is all the fuzz about? Well, let me use a quote:
In other words, there ain’t gonna be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol this year and they are only about to set out another „plan“ to get things done by 2010. „So what“, some may say, thinking that we got up to 2012 (that’s when the Kyoto Protocol ends) to get a deal done. Well, true and false. Yes, we got that time but normally it takes at least 2 years to get these international treaties actually into reality. Thus we’re running out of time. A few weeks ago I asked Dr. Pachauri, Chair of the International Panel on Climate Change a question that just got very relevant: „What if… Copenhagen fails?“. Back then, he answered to me that he would still be optimistic that an agreement could be achieved in Copenhagen and that even if not, the time to get it done in time would be there in 2010. Well, I was very skeptic back when I posed the question and today’s events confirmed me in my skepticism 🙁 It’s not only that they don’t think that they gonna be able to come up with the needed agreement at Copenhagen, but another fact:
What strikes me is that they don’t even have the balls to commit themselves to these longterm targets. Bear in mind that even Obama stated that the target for 2050 for the developed countries (including the US) has to be 80% (sadly only based on „current levels“). Setting a longterm target is a rather easy task, but even that was not possible on the APEC Summit! THAT’s really scary, especially as we need short and midterm targets right now in order to get things on track.
Joe Romm over at ClimateProgress.org, the best climate blog I know, sees the developments not as pessimistic as I do and regards it more as a success that the leaders finally recognize the reality of their likely failure in Copenhagen. Moreover he states:
The new plan for Copenhagen makes the prospects for a successful international deal far more likely — and at the same time increases the chance for Senate passage of the bipartisan climate and clean energy bill that Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen Lieberman (I-CT) are negotiating with the White House.
Well, I kind of agree, that it might make it more likely, but my point is that what I don’t see so far is the political will that is necessary to achieve what is necessary: To decarbonise our economies! Kyoto was regarded as an historic turning point in international environmental agreements. But taking a look at the reality, its really disappointing. Most countries are far away from reaching the Kyoto targets (or only do so due to the recent economic recession) and real and progressive action is hardly visible. Bearing that in mind and the prospect that we’ve to go far beyond Kyoto, how should I not be that skeptic? In an interview done a few month ago with Prof. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Chair of the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, we talked about Kyoto, Copenhagen, the problems we face and possible solutions. These solutions are not easy to achieve and need a global effort to be accomplished successfully – and that’s where we need the political will.
Romm’s argument that the prospect to achieve a better outcome in 2010 is more likely is correct, but what is better if the basis sucks? It’s the american view that once they have a national legislation on climate change everything on the international scale will run more smoothly. But the figures discussed in the US are embarrassing and not at all sufficient for the challenges we face. Sure, we need the US on board and we need the US to guide. But I don’t see at all that a „better outcome“ will help us. Because depending on the basis, better than worse is still bad, and bad is no option! That’s my point.
The question we’ve to answer is whether we as a society (and by that I mean the global society) are willing and capable to cope with the challenge we’re facing. And if so, why our politicians have not seen the necessity and urgency to act on behalf of us in an adequate manner up to now?
I’m hoping. I’m doubting. I’m questioning.
I’m sad. I’m mad.
Why shouldn’t I?
Strothi
Hey folks,
as many of you asked me „So, how’s your project going?“ I figured I should write a little bit about the project itself, what I’m doing here, what I will do and what problems have occurred so far…
Well, basically what I’m doing here is nothing else than working on a paper. The difference this time is only that I’m not basing all my research on the literature I find but rather try to widen the scope through interviews with stakeholders. My topic is e-waste and thus I read so far lots of documents that deal with e-waste in general or in India in specific. The question I try – together with my project group – to answer is, whether the Basel Ban (an amendment to the Basel Convention on Transboundary Shipments of Hazardous Wastes) provides an sustainable and effective mean to the problem of e-waste shipments into developing countries. To this end, it is crucial for us to have a database on which we can draw conclusions. From what I’ve found so far, the biggest problem is that simply no reliable data is existing that could be used. Thus what I now gonna do instead of dealing with national data (that doesn’t exist) is trying to assess the situation here in Delhi and down in the south, in Bangalore and Mumbai. This is important, as there is no formal sector present in Delhi but a huge informal sector treating the e-waste. In Bangalore and Mumbai some projects are running to transform the sector into a formal one, thus I hope to do a comparison between the two.
Aside from that being here I learn a lot about India, its people and cultures, which is to me as important as to get the project done! 🙂 To this end, speaking the language of the country you’re in is essential and that’s why I started learning Hindi right after I arrived. It’s not an easy language to learn, but I get better and better every week and I’m really happy that I’ve reached the point that I can argue in Hindi with the Rickshaw drivers and moreover, approaching them in Hindi makes bargaining way easier as they figure that I’m not a „dumb tourist“ 😉 I’ve Hindi twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours. Last time our teacher (a nice Russian women, teaching us Hindi in English… 😉 ) started to write down everything only in Devangari, the written language for Hindi. Ouch, I’d say I can half the alphabet by now (the whole got 42 letters) and I guess I really have to learn the rest of it fast in order to keep up with the pace we’re having… Now, being only 3-4 in class, it really matters whether you learned the things from the class before or not – other than that you’re lost! So I’ll have to start learning for real at home and not just do it the „It’ll work out somehow without actually learning“-way 😉
Alright, tomorrow I gonna get a totally different perspective on Delhi as Ana and me decided to go for the „Walk into the street life of Delhi“, which is organized by the Salaam Balak Trust, a local NGO some friends work for. Thus I’ll get an insight into Old Delhi from the perspective of a street-kid. I guess that’s going to be very interesting and I’ll tell you about it afterwards 🙂
Take care,
Strothi