Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:13 hours 34 min ago
T&T pilots Commonwealth climate change consensus
...small island states get $$
Published: 29 Nov 2009
Trinidad and Tobago’s Commonwealth leaders’ meeting has wrought consensus on a Commonwealth climate change declaration, whose key element involves immediate funding from next year for small island states affected. The Port-of-Spain Climate Change Consensus—among the first significant strides so far made by leaders at this Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)—is expected to facilitate a successful outcome of next month’s crucial United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The declaration was announced yesterday by conference chairman, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, during a media briefing at the International Financial Centre (IFC).
Manning, who piloted the Commonwealth declaration process, will be among the 90 world leaders who will discuss the crucial climate change issue in Copenhagen in a few weeks. During yesterday’s briefing, Manning was flanked by Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lokke Rassmussen—host of the upcoming Copenhagen conference, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma. The climate change issue was discussed during a special session on Friday, immediately as they got down to agenda business of the three-day CHOGM. Manning said T&T’s CHOGM was always recognised as a potential opportunity to add value to the negotiating process for the United Nations Copenhagen conference on climate change and formulation of a legally-binding agreement at that upcoming meeting.
Ban Ki Moon and Rassmussen, who were very concerned about the way the issue had been going, as well as French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy were, therefore, invited to the CHOGM. Manning added: “I’m very pleased to say the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting here in Port-of-Spain, after deliberating with our invited colleagues, have come to a conclusion on this matter. “We have always known the diversity of the Commonwealth providing us with a particular opportunity, comprising, as it does, some of the smallest and most vulnerable states in the world, regarding climate change, as well as some of the richer countries of the world who are in a much better position than others to contribute to a successful resolution of the issue.
Manning presents declaration
“We have come to a conclusion which we’d proudly like to present as the Port-of-Spain Climate Change Consensus.” Rudd said the declaration was a significant and substantial document aimed at providing consensus, momentum and support for a substantial outcome in Copenhagen. He said climate change financing had been, for some time, one of the key issues in negotiations among states which will participate in the Copenhagen summit. The POS declaration, Rudd added, had now facilitated a breakthrough regarding financing for the most vulnerable states to adapt to and deal with the mitigating effects of climate change. This would be done via an annual “fast start” fund, starting in 2010 and building to a level of resources of $10 billion annually by 2012.
The fund will be known as the Copenhagen Launch Fund. Immediate fast disbursing assistance with a dedicated stream is proposed for small island states and associated low-lying coastal states to the tune of ten per cent of the fund. Leaders met with representatives of such states yesterday. Caribbean states are among small island territories. Commonwealth leaders said they recognised the need for further specified and comparable funding, to assist the poorest and most vulnerable states to cope with climate change. They also acknowledged the need to scale the fund up beyond 2010. Flow of monies for the fund from public and private sources will be discussed during the Copenhagen meeting. The fund is based on a proposal by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
What the leaders say:
“What the Commonwealth has done today is throw its full weight behind the process now chaired by the Prime Minister of Denmark,” Rudd said, noting that the situation on the climate change issue had reached something of an impasse previously. Rudd said the leaders’ declaration had recognised the importance of climate change finance in delivering a substantive outcome at Copenhagen. Canada was fully supportive of the declaration and participation in the fund. Rudd added: “What we’re seeking to do in Copenhagen is to bring about a comprehensive, substantial, operationally-binding agreement in two steps. “The first is the Port-of-Spain Consensus which will lead to a legally-binding document during the course of 2010.”
Ban Ki Moon said he was very encouraged by the Commonwealth leaders’ shared desire to achieve a successful outcome at the Copenhagen summit, and welcomed their declaration and commitment. He felt assured that the upcoming conference would “seal a deal “ and have immediate effect and short-term financial support for small countries. Rassmussen said he was very impressed by the Commonwealth leaders’ statement and was encouraged by their pledge of support to reach a positive outcome in Copenhagen. Sharma said small states would know that they had in the Commonwealth a friend and partner which will “walk the walk” with them in whatever was required for mitigation and accessing finance to deal with climate change effects.
All PNM out for naught With
All PNM out for naught
With the defeat of the Constitutional motion in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and with the obvious knowledge by the T&T voters that the PM has Panday’s freedom in his hands, and that therefore Panday has no chances PM, and the people know this. It is obvious that Panday will respond to the PNM PM as a puppets.
However, NOW as there is now little chance that St Vincent and most probably Grenada, will not join the PNM in a dilution of the split opposition T&T vote, the opportunity of a united opposition front is much more attractive, and therefore likely.
Therefore, when PNM calls elections, it is very possible, that two months before the vote, that Panday seeing the good prospect of a united opposition vote, will cut a deal for ‘forgiveness’ from the oppositions’ leaders, and switch sides from being a PNM supporter (because he has to) to being (an opposition coalition supporter because he will have to).
For if he does not the united opposition will come down on him like a tone of bricks and he will go down in history as a squirming slime ball.
Thus, in spite of the unforeseen Climate Fund Coconscious at POS, in which T&T is just a possible recipient of a hand-out.
Though, even for hand-outs, T&T may not be applicable, as T&T is obviously not short of funds. What it is short on is credible projects related to addressing Climate Change."Smelters base on burning gas need not apply" look at the fine print when the rules are published in a few months.
Note Also: If the President of France says 2 + 2 = 5, this dose not make the math true. We all know that. What it does is. give a placation of verbage-manners just to show that at these deliberations political good-manners prevail, so that a climate for coconscious will prevail, so that cooperation leading to coconscious may be reached. (and the time of real leader not be wasted on side shows)
Thus the smelter will still pollute, and PNM will still waste our last years of gas on producing a commodity with little or no profit-margin for T&T. The future of T&T will still be just as dismal after this meeting as it was before.
May be, after a month or so, after Manning looks at BS VS reality, he will come to his senses. However, this is an unlikely prospect.
What I feel will happen is that they will realize that their days of being in-power and therefore in-money are numbered. If feel that the PNM will go into a more corruption grab-money and foreign-bank ac phase, with repeating over and over ‘So What’ being their new mantra.
NYC-Trini
Climate for change here in
Climate for change here in Trinidad and Tobago. Forget the whole world yet, climate change needs attending to right here in Trindad and Toabago.
Three aluminium smelters in the making, over a dozen industrial and chemical plants on the West Coast of Central Trinidad, a second oil refinery on cards, a direct iron reducing plant on the cards, a steel making plant, several power plants. Man, this man want we to die of cancer and blood disease?
Added to that, the huge amount of garbage produced daily, plus a whole lot of used tyres and used car parts both heavy metal and non-metal scrap car parts rubbish from Japan coming to these shores daily.
We have a climate for change - political change to stop this madness before we all perish here in these two little islands.
trikkeepatbjung
So exactly what new was
So exactly what new was achieved on this issue after all this fanfare? We knew already that Gordon Brown had proposed this Fund at the G20 meeting he hosted recently and his proposed cuts of emissions for the UK; we already knew that Rudd had stated last week that Australia had in mind certain reductions in Australia's green house gas emissions and like the others he did not see a legally binding treaty being signed in Copenhagen to replace Kyoto until some time in 2010; we already knew that China has agreed to start some cutbacks so too the US; we knew that China, India, Brazil and some others are of the view that the big industrialised countries were the ones who made the mess and that they should be the ones to pay to clean it up.
Sarkozy went down to Brazil before coming to POS but he has been very silent on what he was able to get Lula to promise. What is one to make of this silence? Instead, he gave us a treatise on the case for aluminium smelters for T&T, almost as if he were Manning's mouth piece.
There were a number of important countries not at the CHOGM for these discussions and commitments in principle but they were recently at a summit which Brown had called in Scotland just a couple weeks ago where the consensus was that there will be no new treaty on climate in Copenhagen in December but probably in the course of 2010. These absent but important players include the likes of the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil and the other Latin American countries like Mexico and Venezuela, South East Asia, the Middle East, Francophone Africa etc etc.
So while there might have been some consensual positions in principle at the CHOGM we will have to wait and see what comes out of the Copenhagen gathering where the real big players will be gathered. Let us not forget that Kyoto was torpedoed by the US. So while it's good to be positive and optimistic, nothing must be taken for granted until the fat lady sings.
But having spent around a half-billion dollars for one man to gallery and rub shoulders with the Queen and to massage his ego, what is in it for T&T? The World Bank and other international institutions have long ago "graduated" us from being a poor country to receive aid. Instead we were viewed as a donor country. And since the proposed fund that Brown proposed a while ago is for the benefit of the most vulnerable, then obviously T&T will not be a beneficiary, especially when it would be seen that we are hell bent on increasing our noxious gas emissions exponentially.
And now the man says he earned his place at the Copenhagen talks, so put him down as number 90 on the proposed list, thereby adding even more to his long carbon foot print on the executive jet. He's off to save the world, forget T&T. Next thing he will put himself forward for Ban Ki-moon's job since this Region has not yet had a UN secretary General so far.