Collaboration and corporate responsibility to aid climate change movement

The build up to Cancun has been less elaborate than that for Copenhagen with modest green goals set, potentially setting a more realistic, long-term outlook at this year's summit.

The mounting costs of coping with climate change and continuing arguments between developed nations have held back collaboration between nations and reinforcing the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. Organisations and individuals are beginning to recognise that international efforts and a binding agreement cannot be fully relied upon and that bottom up action is required to form a culture towards change.

Climate Campaign Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, Rose Braz, told Making Contact's Andrew Stelzer in a recent interview: "What we're doing in conjunction with a number of groups across the country and across the world is really build the type of movement that will change what happens in Cancun…from the bottom up." With increasing organisations adopting this green initiative, the scene for adaptation is becoming more optimistic.

Diverse groups of people, from large corporations to rural indigenous communities, are battling the effects of global warming. A bottom up approach where institutions, organisations and individuals create structure and coordination in their field, could be an effective basis for forming a movement towards a grander system to coping with climate change. This involves collaboration and forging of relationships between institutions, without being reliant on governments to spur change.

Movement from the business level is being incorporated into this week's green talks, with the World Climate Summit (WCS) taking place on 4th- 5th December in Cancun. This summit, like UNEPFI, involves stakeholders, such as investors and financiers, businesses & entrepreneurs, which are not present at the UN Conference on Climate Change. The inclusion of these groups, rather than solely those with legislative responsibilities, is thought more likely to inspire collaboration. Speakers at the event will include Sir Richard Branson and Ted Turner.

Rather than enforcing GHG restrictions and regulations from the government level down, the WCS aims to share best practices and promote networking to develop climate change solutions. The anticipation is that this approach will create higher commitment and ambitions on a local level, if not on a national level.

According to the Global Economic Symposium: "An effective control of climate change can only be achieved by reducing GHG emissions well below the 1990 levels, i.e. the Kyoto Protocol is largely insufficient because many countries are not committed to reduce emissions [and] committed countries do not have ambitious targets"

With the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, either a reinforcement, which includes US ratification, or a new agreement, is anticipated at the UN talks. The 16th Conference of Parties (COP16), which opened in Cancun yesterday, has already attracted much pessimism with regard to reaching a legally binding agreement, and modest goals focus more on beginning the negotiation process.

One major obstacle towards an international climate change treaty is the residual conflict between developed nations about who is to blame for the climate crisis and who retains a right to emit GHG emissions.

China and the US, the largest emitters of greenhouse gases by nation, are fundamental towards an effective agreement at the UN Conference on Climate Change. Although local efforts are significant to form a climate change movement, cooperation on a national level is essential.

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, said climate aid is the "golden key" to progress in Cancun.

"The Adaptation Track text [at the UN climate change negotiations] is very near agreement and is likely to be approved in Cancun, provided the financing is also agreed," said Saleemul Huq, lead author of the chapter on adaptation in the fourth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and past contributing author to Climate Action.

There are obstacles in funding mechanisms to overcome, such as accountability, and who should play a key role, but Farrukh Iqbal Khan, a senior official with the Pakistani Government, said the outlook is promising. During an interview with Reuters, My Iqbal Khan stated that support was building for proposals that would see the UN's existing Adaptation Fund manage some of the $100bn a year of climate financing that has been pledged as part of the Copenhagen Accord.

However, Huang Huikang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's special representative for climate change talks, said weeks before COP16 began that China will not agree to any deal linking foreign aid to its acceptance of tighter transparency regarding emission reduction efforts.

"We are losing confidence and trust," Huang Huikang told a plenary stock-taking session in October. "I want to emphasise on our side no compromise on the two track process and no compromise on the interests of developing countries," he said.

With negotiations still needed on a national level, local efforts can be implemented so that organisations can adapt to the climate in a way that benefits them, preparing themselves for when government intervention takes place. Vulnerable nations and indigenous people are also benefiting from a bottom up approach through aid from non governmental organisations in addition to aid pledged through the Copenhagen Accord.

It is expected that the bottom up approach will form a movement which impacts on UN international climate talks. With improved commitments on a wide scale, it is anticipated that a binding agreement will be reached before the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. If non-binding negotations can be achieved in Cancun, perhaps more solid agreements can be formed in South Africa next year.

Author: Marianna Keen | Climate Action

Image: Office Now/ Flickr