The fact is that the global climate negotiations are at an impasse, one that has everything to do with developmental injustice between the rich and poor worlds, and that if it is not broken soon we're all toast. And rich-world enviros adopting this sort of tone - whether Grist today, or the EU back at the 8th Conference of Parties, or  .. hell there are too many examples to go on with the list ... is not at all helpful.

I'm not going to make this a long screed. But I am going to say this - the Southern voices in the above referenced articles have a point, and we'd all be better off if we made an effort to understand it.  

Forgive me for quoting myself.  But here goes ...

"If we want a low-emissions trajectory in our future, we're going to have to break the global impasse to get it. And this is only going to happen within a climate regime that takes due account of the real logic of our bitterly divided civilization, which does not encourage enlightened global cooperation. It's a challenge, and it has implications. For one thing, we're going to have to see to it - seriously this time - that the climate regime improves the lives of the poor by widening its focus from "decarbonization" and ensuring that, even under an extremely constraining low-emissions trajectory, the South is able to make real progress in its drive for development. And we're going to have to face the challenge of "adaptation" by honestly straining to protect the vulnerable, in the floodplains of New Orleans and the deserts of Sudan, from the now-inevitable inundations and droughts. And, one way or another, we're going to have to answer the critical "Who Pays?" question that lies, and has always lain, at the heart of global climate politics."

If you want more, check out www.ecoequity.org/docs/InconvenientTruth2.pdf. And in the meanwhile, truth me when I tell you that, if you like hard problems, global climate justice is the place for you!

-- toma


Tom Athanasiou toma@ecoequity.org