Home

Follow Countercurrents on Twitter 

Support Us

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

CC Videos (New)

Editor's Picks

Press Releases

Action Alert

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

WSF

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

Submission Policy

About CC

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Search Our Archive

Subscribe To Our
News Letter



Our Site

Web

Name: E-mail:

 

Printer Friendly Version

The Durban Babel

By Leo F. Saldanha

10 December, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Every day, I get by email A.Word.A.Day. Today's word is Babel. It can be understood in two ways.

The first is “a confused mixture of noises and voice” and the second is “a scene of noise or confusion”.

Both apply to the ongoing talks in Durban to save our planet from the unprecedented crises that climate change is causing. People from across Africa are here voicing concern that not enough is being done by their governments to come to an agreement that is fair, equitable and practical. And they are joined by many more people from across the world saying more or less the same thing.

'Occupying' the Durban talks

In the afternoon of the scheduled last day of the Durban conference, an Occupy the Durban Talks movement began in the foyer of the main building where Parties are meeting. The talks are about arriving at a commonly acceptable fair and equitable solution that also certainly takes into account historical responsibility of developed countries for bringing the planet to this point. The ocuupiers meanwhile are chanting loudly in unison.

“My check” starts someone, and everyone repeats: “My check”. And the person who checked in shouts out a statement, and that is repeated by all. “Are you ready to die?” shouts a man from Nigeria. And the question is shouted back by all. He then says: “We are not ready to die!” And everyone re-shouts this aloud.

There are other chants. “No Carbon Markets”. “Stand strong Africa”, in obvious reference to not being cowed down by pressure from the developed countries”. There are apologies too, such as the one from a young woman: “I am so sorry” she shouts, “on behalf of the UK and other polluting countries”. And then someone else shouts out: “World Bank out of Climate Finance”.

There is a large presence of police who have come to protect the official plenary from all this noise and occupy action. I hear meanwhile an official delegate sharing with another official delegate that the negotiations have been suspended, for a while, and that they will come back to continue later in the evening.

On the last day of the Durban talks, a deal is expected. Having no deal will be embarassing, especially considering that the Rio+20 is coming up next year. And yet a shout rings out: “No deal in Durban is a bad deal”. Only to be corrected “But no dirty deal!”

An empty fund for now?

At the end of A.Word.A.Day is a thought for today, from Gioia, poet, critic, and translator, and it is a poignant reminder of what entails this whole process:

“Money.
You don't know where it's been,
but you put it where your mouth is.
And it talks.”

As negotiations continue without sight of solution, the promise of the US$ 100 billion for financing a way out of the climate crisis is nowhere in sight. Its got a name though: Green Climate Fund, and there are many quarrels going on about who should manage it. The developing world is clearly demanding it should be under the control of the UN and not the World Bank supported Global Environmental Facility as is being proposed by the developed countries.

Their Euro is sinking, meanwhile. Britain says it is happy not to have been a part of the single currency system, and never will be a part of it. Standard and Poor's downgrading of the 27 nation European Union promoted Euro, is clearly an ominous sign of things to come. What French President Sarkozy has dubbed in ongoing desperate efforts at Brussels “the last chance to save the Euro”. In such a climate will any money be committed at all, to save our planet?

Whose crises?

Last night while releasing her book “Whose crisis. Whose future?” political scientist Susan George of ATTAC France (Association for Taxation of (financial) Transactions to Aid Citizens) said that crisis is is a wrong word to describe what's happening in the world today. This is because etymologically, in its language of origin Greek, it only means a decision point. It is also wrong to say it is a crisis, when in fact we are suffering from crises: economic, political, environmental, and more. Thirty years of neoliberal development has brought us to this point, and we are all losing; only some are gaining. Those that are gaining are the “top 1% of the 1% of the top 1%. They are on top of the Mount Everest, and left us all in a world full of crises”.

In this dismal state of affairs there are solutions, George argued. “Their crises. Our Solutions” she quipped should have been the title she wanted for her book, but the publishers shot it down. Such solutions are in forming alliances at the town level, city level, state level, national level and beyond national levels, cross sectorally for climate justice.

There is no room for cynicism, and the current pattern of getting someone else to pay must go. One sure way of doing this is for people to get control over money and ensure it is spent equitably and justly. There are no easy answers, Susan George admitted, investing here faith, however, in making radical democracy work.

Inside the plenary, there is clearly no sign of such radical democracy in action. The world is divided into the broad alliance of the G77 with China which wants Kyoto Protocol to be the basis for meaningful and sincere action. The EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard instead “blamed India for blocking a new legally binding agreement, saying its "relatively tough stand" was hampering countries from arriving at a conclusion in Durban.”1 According to her, on the “legal form of the future agreement.... India wants to continue two tracks - legal and voluntary - while more and more countries have realised that we should not for all eternity keep two tracks."

Such polemics as pressure tactics aren't working. Indian Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan has rebutted this allegation stating: “I have come here with an open mind, but we want to know the content of the legally binding deal. We want to know if they are going to give us a ratifiable Kyoto in return”, clarifying that India was “extremely reasonable” in its demands. China and G77 are with this stand. The North-South divide is once more playing out in global climate politics.

Equity at risk

The core demand from developing countries that 'common and differentiated responsibilities' remain untouched is now under attack. The EU wants this to be diluted, and thus force countries like India and China, who are claimed to be major economies, to begin accepting legally binding cuts in carbon emissions. This they claim is the only way forward to save the planet from climate crisis. Implicit in this demand would be the dilution of responsibility for historical emissions from the developed world, bringing the world closer to the US expectation that every country does voluntary cuts and not be driven by internationally agreed cuts carbon emissions, first and foremost by industrialised countries.

A deadlock without money to fix our climate

In a press briefing earlier in the day, Martin Khor of the South Centre argued that it is simply unfair to punish India and China with their large populations for being large gross emitters, considering that their per capital emissions were low. Four scholarly reports had revealed that results of pledges to cut back on emissions made by developing countries in the Bali talks, have actually been sincerely worked on even though they are not legally bound to do so under Kyoto Protocol. The developed world (listed under Annex 1 of the Protocol), in contrast, had done very little, in fact. Going on to say then: “Here we are on the last day, and the issues remain the same”.

As for the money to fix a planet in crisis, there seems to be none as yet. In Durban's Hilton tower of Babel, there are plenty of noises, and voices, and loads of confusion. No one knows where the “money” is. It's not talking, at all.

A bunch of carbon traders are wondering what to do now. One of them asks: “Is something going to happen here. Should we stay awake all night?” Meanwhile, the plenary continues into a late night session to addressed unresolved issues.

Leo F. Saldanha
Environment Support Group
[email protected]
www.esgindia.org

1“EU blames India for climate deal delay, minister rebuts”, accessible at: http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/World/20111209/1888154.html

 

 



 


Comments are not moderated. Please be responsible and civil in your postings and stay within the topic discussed in the article too. If you find inappropriate comments, just Flag (Report) them and they will move into moderation que.