Fresh churros on a comfortable tropical evening and thoughts of heaven fit together about as closely as any two concepts I can think of but heaven and climate negotiations don’t, according to some parties at this year’s UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico.

My personal metaphysical moments with food notwithstanding, the mood of this year’s Conference of the Parties is serious.  People from all over the world have a stake in the solutions presented here and some in the least developed countries worry about their ability to resist some of the worst affects of a disrupted climatological system that increasingly hampers development.

I wasn’t exaggerating either when I said that heaven and climate negotiations don’t fit together according to some.  One lecturer actually warned her audience that, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” when referencing some of the past commitments of most developed countries that have not actually materialized.  The fear is that empty promises might actually be just as bad as no promises at all with regard to mitigation and adaptation by wealthier countries. 

Solutions are within our reach, technically.  Whether or not we reach out and grab them is yet to be determined. But some are hopeful despite the dire circumstances in some of the world’s poorest places.  Another person on the same panel, organized by the Third World Network, spoke for her group when she said, “we believe in miracles or else we would not be here.” 

I guess I believe in miracles too, but I wonder how we let things get so bad that much of the world’s people are hoping for miracles.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wrap this thing up early with a solid set of climate solutions and then use the rest of our time to just hang out on the beach and eat churros together?

 If you really want to do the "head in the sand" thing, then why not.....

 Wait until after COP 16 and if it's a flop, as soon as possible have an "International Day of Mourning" as a joint SC project with a group like 360.org. People throughout the world, literally or figuratively, will "bury their heads in the sand" with the country's flag "prominently" displayed. Post and send the photos like 350 does for it's international action events.

 You can check with SC Board and if they aren't keen on the idea and if you think it has merit, then pass it on to 350 or some other international enviro group that wants the publicity. You may want to bounce the idea around now with some of the other country's NGO reps.

 Keep me informed on the mitigation issues if you can. Be there next week.

 Ernie

For the past twenty years the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has brought humanity together to address one of the gravest threats it has ever faced. This institution and the process it oversees brought the global community to the brink of a historical global treaty urged on by thousands of protestors at the gates of the Bella center and heralded by stirring speeches and raucous chants of “1.5 to stay alive”.

However, Copenhagen failed to deliver a “FAB” deal and the vacuum created by the bursting of this bubble has opened the door to any number of criticisms of the international negotiations – some legitimate, some misguided. One thing that has become painfully clear however - it is no longer tenable to justify our collectively insane approach that more of the same will produce a different result. It’s time to let international efforts evolve.

First and foremost the United States must release its hostage and allow progress on a global climate fund. Other issues such as technology transfer, REDD, and adaptation are important but climate finance is key for maintaining the interest of parties. U.S. demands for a “balanced outcome” rather than allowing certain key issues to move forward on their own have fed a paralyzing dynamic with China; A dynamic which allows the country to hide behind the “Bali Firewall” despite being the world’s number one emitter. At the same time it has left the door open to other Annex I parties seeking to jump ship from the Kyoto Protocol. All while a host of key countries wait in the wings ready to commit to reducing emissions and get the world on track to address climate change.

The significantly more painful evolution surrounds the fate of the Kyoto Protocol and efforts to create a legally binding treaty that includes the world’s second largest emitter. Twenty years of attempting to leverage the “soft power” of the UNFCCC to forge a global, legally binding treaty have been inevitably bound by the 67 vote hurdle in the U.S. Senate and the realities of U.S. domestic politics. Hope as we may, it serves no one to pretend away this harsh reality.

With the fact that 2010 could be the hottest year on record it is high time that the global climate movement owned up to the nearly intractable dilemma we face. International negotiations are not only failing to keep pace with climate impacts, they are failing to keep pace with national progress in many key emerging economies. It is absolutely imperative that the process evolve to ensure that the economies that will chart the world’s future path are not bound by its past. It is only in this spirit that a global platform unifying and informing the kaleidoscope of efforts can make the difference between a low carbon revolution and business as usual, between progress and failure.

 On Sunday on our way to the UN conference center in Cancun to pick up our credentials as official NGO observers for the Sierra Club, Tyla and I struck up a conversation with a young delegate from Kenya.  His first question for us was has the USA softened its stance on ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. When I told him “no chance” he just laughed--a knowing laugh of frustration that the US, the largest economy in the world and historically the largest carbon emitter still fails to make any long term commitment to CO2 reductions.

Moments before I had read on my Blackberry that Oxford University’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research is to release a study on Monday, the first day of the UN Climate Conference that predicts one billion people could lose their homes to climate change (sea level rise, droughts, crop failure, etc) by 2100.  The African continent will be hard hit by drought and desertification.  But US citizens are already losing their homes to climate change on the Alaskan coast (ironically, Sarah Palin’s home state) where the US government is spending tens of millions of dollars to relocate native Alaskans whose fishing villages have fallen into the sea, having lost the protection of sea ice that once protected them from winter storms.

After picking up our credentials, we scoped out the Cancun Messe, the venue where many of the programs of the two week climate conference will be held and where our Sierra Club delegation will meet regularly for briefings and strategy sessions.  Not far away from our meeting room is the official US Delegation exhibit area. As Tyla and I walked past with workman busily setting up the USA display, it seemed to me that as many bad actors as there are on climate change among the Nation’s of the world, US citizens are in no position to criticize any others until we get our own house in order. 

With the all too recent election of flat earthers to the US 112^th Congress, we have two years to turn this around. 2012 needs to be the year we elect a Congress dedicated to addressing climate change. There is no time to waste. 

Glen Besa and Tyla Matteson, of Virginia, are two of forty Sierrans attending the UN Climate Conference as official observers.

Cynics may suggest that a bathing suit and sun screen are all we’ll need as our Sierra Club delegation prepares to travel to Cancun, Mexico to participate in the 2010 UN Conference on Climate Change.

http://unfccc.int/2860.php   It is a disappointing truth that while global warming accelerates changes in climate that stress our biosphere’s capacity to adapt, climate negotiations are moving slower that a pre-climate change glacier.  After the disappointment of Copenhagen, the failure of the US Senate to pass a comprehensive climate bill and the November election of so many climate change skeptics and deniers to the new congress, we are certainly laboring under lower expectations for this UN climate conference. 

In 2009, 119 heads of state came to the UN conference in Copenhagen, including President Obama, in the hopes of reaching a binding comprehensive climate deal that did not happen.  This year in Cancun, few heads of State are expected as negotiators roll up their sleeves and probe where some progress can be made.  Our Sierra Club delegation to UN climate conference (40 strong-most of whom are paying their own way) is led by Fred Huette, volunteer co-chair of the Sierra Club’s Federal & International Climate Campaign.

The amazing thing about our delegation to this international conference is that it is mostly composed of volunteer activists, the same Sierra Club activists that make the Club the most effective grassroots lobby for environmental protection in our country.  There are student activists like Katherine Boy Skipsey of Louisiana State University, Bo Ra Kim of Bates College and Joseph Manning of Boston College.  There are our Sierra Club volunteer Chapter and Group leaders like Tyla Matteson of Virginia Chapter and Steve Sondheim of Tennessee. There are also members of the Sierra Club Board of Directors including Allison Chin and Jim Dougherty as well as staff like John Coequyt with our International Climate Program and Nicole Ghio with our online organizing department.  

For most of our volunteer activists, Cancun will be an opportunity to learn the jargon and details of climate negotiations, from REDD to mitigation, adaptation and finance, that will make them more effective citizen advocates as we gear up for the long fight for climate change protection right here at home.  Realistically, it is hard to expect much out of the next Congress, but President Obama’s EPA is moving forward aggressively to reduce emissions for power plants and cars and trucks. Our immediate job is to fight to insure that these EPA actions are adopted and implemented over the attacks from the fossil fuel industry and their friends in Congress. Over the next two years we need to be building political power to a scale that guarantees action by the 113th Congress (seated in 2013) and by the President that leads us to a clean energy, bright future where we take critical steps to address the unfolding disaster of climate change. 

2010 has been a challenging year, but you can’t be a climate activist unless you are an optimist deep down. So rest up this coming holiday season and come back energized and ready to continue the fight for climate justice. 

You can follow dispatches from our UN delegation at http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/ and http://connect.sierraclub.org/project/Sierra_Club_Cancun_Delegation.

Glen Besa is a member of the Sierra Club UN Climate Conference delegation and the Director of the Sierra Club-Virginia Chapter

I went to see the new movie "Fair Game" last night even knowing that it would make me angry. Seeing the way Bush/Cheney/Rove outright lied to get us into an Iraq War and then did all they could to cover up the truth by viciously attacking Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson in the media is a good lesson about what is going on with the climate policy debate.

Instead of a President, we have corporate interests misrepresenting the climate science and spreading outright falsehoods. But some of the players remain the same: for example, Karl Rove and Fox News.

Just as Joe Wilson pushed back against overwhelming odds and was fully vindicated when no WMDs were found in Iraq, we know that climate science will vindicate us eventually. 

In Joe Wilson's case, his vindication was too late for our nation which by then had been drawn into a tragic, costly and unnecessary war.  In the climate fight, we can not let our vindication come after we've passed the tipping point in greenhouse gas emissions and our climate and planet are damaged beyond repair.  So on the eve of the UN Climate Conference in Cancun, just like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, let's fight like hell for the truth!

I went to see the new movie "Fair Game" last night even knowing that it would make be angry. Seeing the way Bush/Cheney/Rove outright lied to get us into an Iraq War and then did all they could to cover up the truth by viciously attacking Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson in the media is a good lesson about what is going on with the climate policy debate.

Instead of a President, we have corporate interests misrepresenting the climate science and spreading outright falsehoods. But some of the players remain the same: for example, Karl Rove and Fox News.

Just as Joe Wilson pushed back against overwhelming odds and was fully vindicated when no WMDs were found in Iraq, we know that climate science will vindicate us enventually. 

In Joe Wilson's case, his vindication was too late for our nation which by then had been drawn into a tragic, costly and uncessary war.  In the climate fight, we can not let our vindication come after we've passed the tipping point in greenhouse gas emissions and our climate and planet are damaged beyond repair.  So just like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame let's fight like hell for the truth!