T-Shirt Drama In Warsaw

This last Tuesday has seen uproar about a t-shirt as over 130 ministers arrived for the high-level segment of the UN climate change negotiations in Poland. The messages were tired, and ones we have heard before. An EU delegate who has been attending COPs since 1992 said “the message has always been the same, but the urgency is what’s changing”. Ominous and worrying. If we have to come to a meaningful agreement, why hasn’t there been any progress yet? There was aesthetic sand-art video though that may have captured the essence of all the speeches more than any wrap could. But we’ll try:

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk opened saying that “we cannot play with the climate”. And yet, the G77 and China are charging developed countries with exactly this. Rumours have been ricocheting in the conference hallways this morning that they walked out on loss and damage negotiations at 4am, dismayed at the lack of progress being made and Australia’s t-shirt fashion faux pas.

In short, we heard more about Typhoon Haiyan, the need for intergenerational equity (without quite using those words) and that this meeting is just a stepping stone towards Paris in 2015. These statements by UN ‘celebrities’ — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon himself, President of the General Assembly John Ashe and Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Christiana Figueres — are unlikely to change the course of the negotiations. In reflecting on the slow progress across the board, these sentiments seem hollow.

ADP discussions on loss and damage, controversially, lasted until 4am this morning when the G77 walked out. This is contested by the remaining countries with claims that a break was called. Harjeet Singh from ActionAid International underlined : “USA, EU, Australia and Norway remain blind to the climate reality that’s hitting us all and poor people and countries much.” Not all NGOs have been so empathetic though, with Climate Action Network International attempting to reach compromise with different countries specifically on Paragraph Nine in the hope that it gets altered as opposed to completely deleted.

They have not found an ally in Australia who seems to have problems with every element of the text adding an overzealous number of brackets to the text.

On finance, parties have agreed on some agenda items, and Wednesday will be crucial in deciding what next. Finance is critical in reaching agreements on other topics like financial commitments to developing countries, REDD+ and adaptation.

One tumultuous day, or night rather, later and everyone at COP19 can tell that the gears have changed. It’s time to reach an agreement, even if it takes us into 4am — we say bring it.

By Linh Do and Cécile Schneider, photo by Laura Owsianka.