Despite how exciting it is to be here at the conference, it’s surprising how out of the loop I feel. Granted, our observer status gets us into hundreds of events hosted by governments, IGOs, NGOs and corporations, where we rub shoulders with high level officials, scientists, and even Al Gore,; however, we have no access to the actual negotiations. I find myself relying on my old standby, nytimes.com to let me know what’s happening!
But what we do have access to is very interesting. In addition to the lectures, there are hundreds of booths manned by a variety of organizations. I’ve written down a lot of websites, taken a variety of brochures (for a climate change conference, there’s a whole lot of photocopies!). No matter what comes out of this conference in terms of an international agreement, it is encouraging to know that at a local, regional, and national level there are groups continually working on mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change.
I’d like to list a couple of the organizations that caught my eye.
1) Transparency International (http://www.transparency.org/)
Billing themselves as “the global coalition against corruption”, I first heard about them a month ago while researching for a final paper in for a class on poverty, social justice, and human capabilities. They are a coalition of civilians, governmental officials, businesspeople, and journalists in almost 100 different countries. They acknowledge the existence and dangers of corruption, especially in developing countries, an admission that many NGOs hesitate to make, for fear of loosing development funds. They’ve actually been able to remove corrupt officials from office, and push policy changes that are anti-corruption. It’s yet another imperative piece of the puzzle, because if developing countries are to get aid for clean technologies, how can we ensure that this money is appropriately used?
2) Local Governments for Sustainability (http://www.iclei.org/)
Another topic that caught my eye because of the capabilities course, the ICLEI is an international association of local governments (including Houston!) as well as national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development. They’ve held several lectures throughout the conference, including one featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC. Unfortunately both the room and overflow room was filled by the time I got there, but I did peak through the window. The ICLEI basically provides technical consulting, training, and information services to support the implementation of sustainable development at the local level. Especially with the odds looking slim for an international agreement, the action of local organizations is increasingly important.
3) Women’s Groups
I was surprised at the number of women’s groups that have turned out for the conference. Groups like Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), UNIFEM (the UN branch for women’s rights), and UNICEF (which focus heavily on women, too), all argue that women should have a larger role in the solution to climate change than they have been given. Across the globe women represent the majority of farmers, yet they have had little say in the potential agriculture, food security, and deforestation policies that will affect their family’s livelihoods. It’s also telling to see the gender breakdown in the different sessions; the presenters are predominately women in lectures that deal with poverty and social topics, while the science and industry lectures are dominated by men. But just because there are a large number of women’s groups in the sessions open to observers, does not mean the issues are being discussed behind closed doors.
While it’s sad that a lot of the socially conscious development issues may not make it into the final agreements, it’s extremely heartwarming to see that the entire world is moved by climate change. I get giddy shivers seeing so many different types of people and hearing so many different languages. There are so many people working toward the same goal. But I think that one of the biggest dangers is having this feeling of collaboration disappear after the conference, or worse, get so buoyed up that we think we’ve actually achieved something concrete, instead of just planning. Talk is cheap; action is what counts.