The audacity of nope

The audacity of nope

And so the climate change summit in Barcelona will draw to an end here on Friday with a draft agreement, a form of words that will make no one happy.

Remember this was meant to be the conference which paved the way for the big extravaganza in Copenhagen next month, where world leaders came together to sign up to legally binding commitments which would turn back climate change and save the world. Only it hasn’t. And they won’t.

The UN’s climate treaty man says it’s physically impossible to complete every detail of a treaty in Copenhagen. Given it’s been a two year process, that’s a bit hard to understand.

There are enough people here to get it done. There are enough climate change experts in Barcelona to fill a room. I know, because they have. What is missing is the political will to get things done.

Africa wants the ‘developed world’ to cut emissions by 40 percent. Anything less, they say, condemns thousands to death. The developed world doesn’t want to go that far. And then there’s the question of who pays for it all.

The Americans can’t even given an indication of how much they’ll cut. When asked, they say no – because Congress still has to debate the issue. On Thursday, they won the Fossil of the Day Award, given by a coaltion of Climate Change groups for the country that has "done their best to do their worst" in the negotiations.

Here’s an interesting fact: the entire continent of Africa emits 3.6 percent of the world’s carbon. That’s the same as Texas.

So what they’re aiming for is a framework document where the figures will be filled in later. It’s not why everyone is here. It’s not legally binding. Instead it will be a commitment that will be “politically binding”. And we all know how good politicians are at sticking to those.