Looking Backward and Moving Forward: Civil Society and the UNFCCC

So yesterday I attended  three different NGO briefings, one from the chair of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long Term Collective Action, one from the chair of the Ad hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol, and one from outgoing UNFCCC Seretariat Yvo de Boer.  All three of these briefings focused on civil society participation in the UNFCCC process, what we can learn from the way civil society was treated in Copenhagen, and how to move forward to COP16.

One thing that was mentioned over and over again through all three meetings was that all the plenaries thus far have been open to all observer organizations and that the UNFCCC would like to continue this as much as possible as we move towards COP16.  Part of this is (I believe) to make up for the logistical and communication nightmare that COP15 was for civil society groups with badge limitations, etc.  However, I think it also ties very neatly into the negotiations on Friday where parties expressed commitment to the UNFCCC process and transparency in negotiations.  Whether or not these intentions come to fruition or not is another matter, but I think it is positive that dialogue is being started between civil society and the UNFCCC.

Another highlight from yesterday’s negotiations was an emphasis on national as well as international action from civil society.  It was stressed over and over again that civil society needs to be extremely powerful on the national front letting governments know that climate change is a top priority or the UNFCCC process is never going to be able to produce a legally binding treaty.  This advice was obviously very targeted toward the United States in particular and I think that it’s extremely important to remember that we need to tell our politicians to Show Me Democracy! and get a climate bill passed in Congress by the start of COP16.

Now, onto the more nitty gritty details of civil society at COP16.  Yvo de Boer was surprisingly candid in his discussions of how he hopes to better handle NGO access in Cancun.  So here are some quick highlights from that.  One, it was made explicitly clear that governments delegations will not be limited and therefore if a country wants to show up with an extremely large entourage it could mean decreased access for civil society.  Two, de Boer mentioned that at previous COPs, most notably COP14 in Poznan, Poland, civil society has the opportunity to present proposals to plenaries and he supported that happening again, even if it meant that the Secretariat would have to be a little more discriminating with accrediting NGOs.  Three, he mentioned that the UNFCCC is thinking about moving the high level plenary sessions to an earlier time in the negotiations to allow for more civil society participation and allowing adequate time for serious issues to be discussed and decisions to be reached.  Lastly, de Boer was very clear that there were several factors that led to the UNFCCC and civil society relationship being strained in Copenhagen but that he hopes to learn from the mistakes of COP15 (from both the Secretariat and civil society) and be more prepared and communicative at COP16.

So that’s all I’ve got for now.  The first plenary session of the day got canceled so nothing new has happened since yesterday.  More info tomorrow.

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