{"id":9844,"date":"2010-12-13T15:54:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=9844"},"modified":"2010-12-13T15:54:53","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T23:54:53","slug":"cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancun Postscript: Leadership Key For Climate Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this guest post: Some reflections on the recently concluded UN climate talks\u00a0 from Louis Blumberg, who heads the California Climate Change Team for The Nature Conservancy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cancun provided glimmers of what could be if nations put their minds to it<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Louis Blumberg<\/p>\n

Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico – I stood up \u2013 every one stood up \u2013 and applauded loudly for three minutes \u2013 twice!\u00a0 Patricia Espinosa, President of the UN Climate Change Conference<\/a> walked into the cavernous hall Friday night, calmly took her place at the head table and the place went wild.\u00a0 The 1500+ people (it could have been 2500) spontaneously gave her a standing ovation and there were still about six\u00a0 more hours of work to come.<\/p>\n

Joining colleagues from the Nature Conservancy<\/a> and about 9,000 others from 194 countries, we were in Cancun to shape the foundation of what could become a comprehensive, legally binding treaty to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and avoid major climate disruption.\u00a0 Last year\u2019s effort in Copenhagen had provided little success and expectations for Cancun were low.\u00a0 However after two weeks of talks, a balanced package of decisions<\/a> was reached for a few key issues \u2013 like the role of preventing deforestation \u2013 and set the stage<\/a> for completion of the treaty next year in South Africa, potentially.<\/p>\n

The standing ovations signaled the overwhelming support Espinosa had established over the two weeks.\u00a0 In this penultimate session, almost every country representative praised the transparent and inclusive way she had run the conference.\u00a0 Most were ready to accept the draft document she had assembled \u201cas is,\u201d with no further debate.\u00a0 But in deference to the five or six countries that asked for more changes, at midnight she called for a last round of committee work with the goal of finishing by dawn.\u00a0 When the full group reassembled around two a.m., Bolivia was alone in objecting.\u00a0 Flexing her considerable mojo, Espinosa said that the will of 193 nations could not be denied, that consensus did not mean unanimity and she declared the document official.\u00a0\u00a0 As widely reported, it was this type of leadership by Mexico throughout that produced the positive result.<\/p>\n

I was there working to promote nature-based solutions to climate change, including reducing emissions by stopping deforestation and deploying nature to help people and wildlife adapt to the impacts of climate change.\u00a0 Progress was made in both of these priorities.\u00a0 For example, the decision in Cancun establishes a goal for ending deforestation (but no date) and allows for state programs on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation \u2013 known as REDD+<\/a> – to be folded into national programs.<\/p>\n

The Cancun Agreement also made progress on the issue of adaptation \u2013 helping people, especially those in the developing world most at risk — survive climate change.\u00a0 It established a framework for planning, provides a\u00a0 new fund\u00a0 for the most vulnerable countries, and includes a strong role for protecting ecosystems and sustainable management of natural resources.<\/p>\n

Another focus of my work Cancun revolved around promoting the progress that California has made in integrating nature into its climate change program.\u00a0 Along with state officials and others, we highlighted the important work underway by states in the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Africa to collaborate on actions to reduce emissions from forest loss.\u00a0 This state-to-state or \u201csub-national\u201d activity reduces emissions now and motivates national leaders to act.\u00a0 Given the lack of action in the US Congress, sub-national action has garnered increased attention since Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

I spoke at a special event about progress in California to establish a forest carbon market in California\u2019s climate program under AB 32, the 2006 law successfully defended in the overwhelming defeat of Prop 23 in last month\u2019s election.\u00a0 I briefed representatives from the US State Department and Congress about sub-national action on forest protection globally, did media interviews including a roof-top spot for KQED-TV, and worked with TNC colleagues in Brazil and Mexico to support new state-level action in those countries including the launch of a Tri-Yucatan State climate plan in Mexico.\u00a0\u00a0 Long days, late nights, frustrating bus rides and erratic meals made the eight days challenging, but ultimately rewarding.<\/p>\n

Sitting in this aluminum tube, headed home with my computer slammed into my chest, and admittedly generating greenhouse gas, I am heartened by the progress in Cancun yet still worried that the comprehensive, legally binding global treaty may not come in time.<\/p>\n

For more on the Nature Conservancy\u2019s work, see our Planet Change<\/a> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An insider’s perspective: Cancun provided glimmers of what could be if nations put their minds to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141,193,298,435],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-9844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","tag-cop16","tag-emissions","tag-international","tag-policy"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nCancun Postscript: Leadership Key For Climate Progress | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cancun Postscript: Leadership Key For Climate Progress | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An insider's perspective: Cancun provided glimmers of what could be if nations put their minds to it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-13T23:54:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2010\/12\/87671720.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@voxterra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/\",\"name\":\"Cancun Postscript: Leadership Key For Climate Progress | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-13T23:54:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-13T23:54:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/12\/13\/cancun-postscript-leadership-key-for-climate-progress\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cancun Postscript: Leadership Key For Climate Progress\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\",\"name\":\"Craig Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/dd8f4f4f978df3faac9db4c510939ea0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Miller\"},\"description\":\"Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. 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