To value (Tuvalu) or Lost value in the negotiations at COP15

So why has the little known island nation’s created such a storm in the COP negotiations? These are some of the moments of the international negotiations which are proving to be quite.There are two schools of thoughts on what interpreting the situation out here. Here we are hearing of an official text of the treaty being tabled by an AOSIS (Association of small island states) country – Tuvalu, who raised the issues of having a nontransparant process in the negotiations and hence decided to counter the negotiations and hence called for the talks to be stalled until this matter was resolved. Soon enough the session was suspended, which followed the direct action from youth creating a sensational moment at the plenary hall. The voice of this action meant to showcase the survival of the small islands, who have oft been sidelined in getting their say in this matter.

Now, what is the island nation’s proposal on the table? The new proposal follows the elements of the Bali Action Plan closely, sets out a shared vision and the goals of limiting temperature increase to well below 1.5 C and stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at 350 ppm at the most.

Although it all seems fine, there are reasons why this seems unacceptable to India, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa. Tuvalu’s proposal came into light primarily because they felt insecure of their demands and the fear of not having a deal by the end of Copenhagen for the world. Copenhagen would be acclaimed a success only when there is a large commitment from the Annex 1 countries and Tuvalu’s suggestion is to create an architecture which would seem irresistible to this crowd, eventually creating an alternate vehicle for the Kyoto agreement. This seems quite a good suggestion but the countries who are objecting to it are of the opinion that this is not the right timing to begin this consultation process as it destroys the morale of the countries who are already part of the original Kyoto protocol. The other allegation that has been doing the rounds is that parties to the Tuvalu text may seem like this is an escape mechanism to the more stricter versions in the Kyoto agreement and they might be able to get more appeasing conversations at the new podium created in this mechanism.

The matter has been put on a voting mechanism (never before done in a UNFCCC process, as all decision are usually taken in a consensus mechanism) and we await the outcome.

Hang around to see if this is true value or lost value to the table of COP15?

Cross posted on – What’s with the climate