Out of the mouth of babes - PNG at Climate Summit

Almost farce

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was at the risk of precipitating into a farce – apart from the decision of Australia to sign and ratify the Kyoto Protocol there was very little good news coming from the convention.

It took the new blood of a new government to change the view of Australia, but we have still had to deal with the recalcitrance of the United States which is now isolated amongst the big Western powers on this subject.

When Al Gore, the Nobel Laureate took centre-stage at the convention he was solemn in stating that his own country was the main impediment to progress in coming to the right kind of consensus, it was the inconvenient truth.

Engage first for consensus

There is no doubt that there is some sense in involving the emerging and developing countries in any framework, but the leadership of the developed economies is first critical by example and persuasion with firm objectives to gain support of all concerned – this climate issue is a global emergency to many losing lands, habitat, water, species and means to survive – something we in the comfort of our detached affluent existence cannot begin to fully appreciate.

The UN Secretary-General reluctantly had to address (BBC Video) the delegations expressing his disappointment that no agreement or consensus was being met, then an accusation that the head of the conference was not running the conference with professional conduct left the poor, exhausted man in tears – offering tissues to wipe the tears would have left me bereft of green credentials even if empathy matters.

Lead, follow or get out of the way

Then the delegate from Papua New Guinea (CIA World Fact Book) had something to say and before we get to that, I would rely on Wikipedia to give us a general idea of where it stands in the world – 54^th in land space, 104^th in population, 204^th in population density, 131^st in per capita GDP – he said – “We have a saying, if you are not prepared to lead get out of the way”, he went on to excoriate the United States and pointedly asked them to “either lead, follow or get out of the way”.

By all accounts, it was the most stinging rebuke and I would not be surprised if the media is not showcasing that delegate - Harvard-educated Kevin Conrad - every time countries meet up about climate change and things are getting tough and strained – no doubt, these conferences thrive more on brinkmanship than diplomacy; but for countries we expect to be in leadership to become the stumbling blocks of process, progress, compromise or consensus, we recognise their inability to listen and inability to persuade – consequently, their inability to lead.

It is quite poignant that Mr. Conrad was using America's own words against it when at the beginning of the week, James Connaughton, President Bush's climate change adviser said, "We will lead. We will continue to lead but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow." I am sorry, one other thing he should have realised was that he cannot expect blind follower-ship - we are not ready to fall in line with bad leadership - that should at least be the prerogative of the follower and not at the coercion of leadership. (Source of quote: The Daily Telegraph )

A looming embarrassment

We must not forget that George W. Bush’s alternative climate summit scheduled for January next year was at risk of having no guests if no agreements were reached this time round, and this would have been a serious embarrassment – I am of the view that it should be boycotted anyhow, the United States has to learn to adapt to consensus global politics in issues that affect us all.

It might take the new blood of new government to gain a fully engaged partnership the United States in the climate change debate, but we do not have the time to wait till 2009 for that to happen.

If it takes Papua New Guinea and their sense of the obvious effects of climate change to tell the United States to wake up to their responsibilities – so be it – like the Scriptures say – Out of the mouth of babes … We now have an agreement of sorts.

At peace with the Nobel Peace Prize

Weathering the peace

The Nobel Prize week is just beyond us and there were a good few recognitions for work done though the most controversial was the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 in recognition of the science and the celebrity of the consequences global warming.

My view is that the award to Al Gore was more about making global warming an agenda issue in the highest forums of human endeavour and government rather then the nut and bolts of what is the accepted or disputed science of global weather phenomena and the consequences.

We might be in some millennial weather cycle or what we experience now might be man-made due to our consumption and disposal, it does not take away from the fact the land and water with the derivatives of food, shelter and resources are the primary causes war and dispute in many places especially Africa and the Middle-East.

Consensus for peace

The peace dividend is in finding fair and equitable means of managing these ever shrinking global resources of land and habitat being lost to development, desertification and the destruction of war all of which require a modicum of good governance and developmental economics.

Sharing the Nobel Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) where peer-reviewed science collides with compromise and political consensus indicates that the greatest advances in responding to climate change and its effects on the environment would come from UN-type organisations rather than weather propeller-heads postulating from citadels of academic overdrive.

The IPCC was formed in 1998 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess and monitor possible climate change cause by human activity the presentation that includes Al Gore gives this citation “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

Another Nigerian in peace

It would be remiss to forget that the Secretary General of the WMO at that time was Professor Godwin Obasi, a Nigerian of impeccable academic credentials who held the position for 19 years from 1984 but unfortunately died in March 2007, no doubt, he would have been very pleased to see this phenomenon lauded and given this kind of profile.

In the end, I am at peace with recognition that the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 regardless of what the detractors, refuseniks and critics have to say on this matter, these recipients have done more to bring this matter into the mainstream, it would however placate the Carbon Nazis.