Things are getting pretty weird at the Bella Center. Events are closing up and locking down. Key heads of state are arriving on their private jets. Evo Morales is still wearing really ugly sweaters? Will there ever be any progress on a binding agreement?
Most of the events I went to today focused on development of clean energy projects and development initiatives. Some of the topics included the links between poverty alleviation and energy access, the role of regional government, and the promises of the solar industry in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In some ways it was also a superstar day. John Kerry spoke about how the US is finally at the table in terms of climate negotiations, and Nichols Sterns made an appearance at an ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, talk. A talk on community-based rehabilitation of degrated lands, a key tool for climate change adaptatio, was attended by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the director of the World Food Program, Nicolas Sterns, and the President of the World Bank. Today also saw the first speeches by Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales; in fact, Morales passed within five feet of me while I waited in line for a sandwich. Wild.
For many of the LDC and localities that presented today, a main consideration for a climate agreement is the recognition of carbon-reducing projects within their own regions. Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries with emissions reductions targets could sponsor emissions-reducing projects in LDCs as an alternative to more expensive reductions in their own countries; this is facilitated through a program known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The goal is to allow LDCs to leapfrog carbon-intensive growth: a theorectical rural village could be outfitted with solar panels to prevent the need to connect the village to a coal-fired electrical grid. The problem is, the CDM has been difficult to enact, with many bureaucratic hurdles for poorly-equipped governments. It is also legitimate to ask whether additional emissions would have been released if the some CDM projects has not been undertaken. There are currently under 1,500 approved CDM projects, with another 4,000 awaiting certification. Some of these projects have been less-than-stellar, and many have benefitted both their funders and their LDC recipients. Zambia presented today on the difficulty it has encountered on securing any renewable energy CDM projects to help extend electricity to the 95% of its rural residents that have no power; after five years of Kyoto, they are starting to make headway, but the lessons of Zambia and the Annex 1 countries will need to be considered when crafting a new CDM framework.
Beyond the star-power, NGOs and observers are getting tense. Since Tuesday, NGOs has to use limited secondary badges to get into the center, and the number of passes would be ramped down each day as heads of state arrived. During talks on Wednesday, we started noticing the buzz of helicopters and the whine of sirens. Rachel checked Twitter on her phone, and a protest led by several NGO was gathering outside the Bella Center, barricading streets, and floating across a canal on rafts trying to get to the Bella Center. Inevitably the police were involved, but other news sources such as the New York Times can tell that story better. The was a protest inside the Bella Center and a few arrest were made. These events prompted the UN Security Staff to ban all NGOs from the proceedings, and after much debate about 300 passes were distributed. To say the least, we were pretty low on the list of NGOs, and we won’t be able to return for the rest of the conference. We stayed as long as we could, but from now on we will have to be outside observers of sorts. And its really cold outside. Is this the kind of collaborative climate the COP wants to encourage?
Some very nice pictures, including John Kerry, Evo Morales, and a GRINGO: