There were no significant steps taken toward a new global waming treaty at the April meeting in the Bonn Maritim Hotel of two ad hoc working. The official purpose of the conference was for the industrialized nations to negotiate additional obligations on the carbon dioxide reductions and their long-term co-operation with poorer countries. Two thousand delegates met in the conference centre’s elegant halls. NGOs demonstrated on a pile of broken glass in the hotel’s driveway as their way admonish conference participants over their recent fiasco in Copenhagen and to try launch a new run towards a Kyoto type agreement on carbon reduction.
The Obama adminisitration’s global warming strategy was left lying on a hotel computer where it was discovered and leaked to John Vidal of the Guardian. According to this document the American delegation intends to press ahead towards a treaty, is prepared to take unilateral action in the U.S. and plans a large-scale campaign to placate environmental NGOs, spin the media and bypass it as needed. Details at www.cfact.eu.
The official duty of the delegates from 190 countries was to negotiate a precise timetable for the next major climate conference in November/December in Cancún, Mexico. However, in the plenary sessions the metered delegates focused instead primarily on the question of how to make additional funds available so that the climate circus, despite its highly visible hangover from Copenhagen, would be able have even more meetings in five-star hotels and convention centres. After the “Climategate” scandal and the Copenhagen disaster, the main reason for all the chatter and gastronomy is evidently to postpone the funeral for the UN’s climate policy as long as possible. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, who has announced his pending resignation, expressed open pessimism on the chances of a new global climate treaty agreement. Der Spiegel quotes him as saying, “not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine that concrete measures will be agreed in Cancún.”
Climate change (which appears to have just undergone an entire decade of lasting cooling, which cannot be explained by the “climate models” advocated by the IPCC) was not a favorite topic of the Bonn negotiations. However, just before the entrance to the plenum hall was CFACT with prominent climate realist Lord Christopher Monckton catching the eye of passing delegates. Many of them took the opportunity to learn more about the weaknesses of the current climate models and were treated to alternative viewpoints some told us, for the first time. Even among the climate diplomats there are increasing numbers of people who would rather call a halt than continue to demonize carbon dioxide which is in fact, one of the elixirs of life. Lord Monckton felt that his arguments received a surprisingly sympathetic hearing. “This is a radical shift from the tone we heard just a few months ago. The reason for this seems clear. The UN climate agency has lost so much credibility in recent months that it is going to great lengths to appear even handed. We have made our presence felt – that’s for sure,” he concluded.
Edgar Gärtner is a regular contributor to CFACT.eu. He is a prolific journalist, analyst and editor. He recently served as Director of the Centre for New Europe’s Environment Forum. He previously served as Editor In Chief for the German Branch of the WWF. Edgar Gärtner is the author of Eco-Nihilism: A Critique of Political Ecology, TVR (Jena) available (in German) in the CFACT Europe bookstore.