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November 23, 2005: NGOs, Industry Advocates Will Do Their Best to Influence the Climate Change Agenda

Canada

Embassy, November 23rd, 2005

FEATURE

By Kady O'Malley

NGOs, Industry Advocates Will Do Their Best to Influence the Climate Change Agenda

Though they don't have official delegate status, many environmental organizations on both sides of the Kyoto debate will be in Montreal to make contacts and get the latest news.

Although they won't have seats at the official negotiating table, hundreds of environmentalists, industry advocates and other lobby groups are headed to Montreal to take part in the United Nations Conference on Climate Change as official observers.

Morag Carter of the British Columbia-based David Suzuki Foundation says that the outcome of the Montreal conference is very important to groups like hers.

"There are a couple of reasons, but the most pressing is that this is where we hope that negotiations for the second commitment period will start, and we're going to be looking for a mandate or declaration to start discussions about the much deeper reductions that will be required."

As part of the run-up to the conference, the Foundation will be releasing a new report that recommends significantly higher reductions in the years to come, says Ms. Carter.

"It looks at the scientific evidence, and our recommendations will be for an 80 per cent reduction, since that's what the science is telling us."

Over the course of the conference itself, she'll be working with other NGOs, and, ideally, the Canadian delegation, she says.

"As NGOs, we have no right to take a formal part in the negotiations, but we're going to be doing all sorts of other things to help push the agenda forward."

Other groups, however, are planning to use the same meeting to push back. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington-based non-profit organization that has lobbied extensively against Kyoto and similar environmental initiatives, and which has received funding from major American corporations, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation Foundation, also has observer status at the Montreal conference.

"I think the principal reason [for attending the conference] is that we're very involved in issues that affect the poor of the US and other countries," says CACT spokesperson Dr. Paul Driessen, author of Eco-Imperialism: Black Power, Green Death.

"Kyoto is one of these efforts that has a lot of goodhearted people behind it, who are concerned about the environment, but the problems are threefold. There is still a question within the scientific community on how much the planet is warming, and how much is due to natural climate change phenomenon, and there's a real question as to what good Kyoto is going to do. There's general consensus that even if we implement Kyoto, and everyone who signs it does everything they're supposed to do, the best it will do is reduce the climate by about two tenths of one degree over the next 50 years, but the cost is going to be tremendous."

It's that cost, combined with the impact of rising energy prices, which will hurt the world's poor, he argues.

"It takes money out of the economy that could be spent elsewhere, on poor people, not just in the U.S., but around the world."

Like Ms. Carter, he believes that the upcoming meeting will give "small groups" like CACT a platform to put forward concerns.

"Obviously we don't have the visibility, the impact, or the monetary capabilities to present our positions that other groups do, but what we want to emphasize is that there are some serious ethical and moral issues here -- not just the one about a moral imperative to do something to prevent climate change ... We're trying to carry this ethical and moral message, as well as the economic and environmental message, because it's so important that policy-makers ponder the effect that this will have on poor countries."

CACT isn't the only Kyoto opponent on the list of participating observers at next week's conference. Myron Ebell, spokesperson for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also based in Washington, admits that for groups like his, there's not much of a reason to go -- but he's headed to Montreal, if only so that he can say he was there.

"We're not looking for any grants or programs, or to get government funding, and we oppose Kyoto, but you're not actually considered an authority on the Kyoto process unless you go to the meetings. We can annoy people by asking difficult questions, and essentially just be a thorn in the side of the Kyoto true believers, and there's some satisfaction in that."

He also uses meetings like this to pick up the "inside stuff" that environmental groups are planning.

"Two years ago, I was in Milan and the environmentalists there announced that dangerous human interference in the climate system was a rise in temperature of two degrees centigrade, because at the time, many scientists were claiming it was unlikely there would be much more than 2 degrees change. Now you see hundreds of examples of scientists that it's around 2 degrees, and I know who made the decision, because I was there."

He agrees that much of the real networking takes place in the halls outside the meeting room, not at the conference itself.

"I'll see people who I haven't seen since last year in Buenos Aires, but many times it turns out that I run into people who are from Washington, too, and occasionally, you meet new people. It's also an opportunity to watch our own delegation, and see how they're performing, and how they're approaching the issues."

Aside from influential environmental groups like the World Wildlife Federation, there is limited interaction between official delegates and NGOs, he admits.

"I know Harland Watson from way back, and he's a great guy. I may see him and say hi, but that's about the level of the talk. I did tell him something in Milan that he was interested to hear, since I was at an NGO event as a listener, so it isn't that I don't have any contact. I've passed on information. Mainly, we try to bring back intelligence for people on our side."

Not all the business lobbies headed to Montreal are opposed to Kyoto, of course.

Earlier this month, the Executive Forum on Climate Change, a Canadian coalition of Kyoto-friendly businesses, issued a statement calling on Prime Minister Paul Martin to come forward with a strategy for the next 50 years, particularly post-Kyoto 2011, including "clear markers along the way to unleash competitive market forces and ... long-term value for carbon emission reductions."

As a founding member of the EFCC, industrial giant Alcan plans to be front and centre in Montreal, says company spokesperson Alexander Christen.

"On one hand, we will be participating on the part of the aluminum industry, and in a larger sense, on behalf of the movement and the Executive Forum on Climate Change. Our main goal is going to be to engage, and also participate, in the discussion of post-Kyoto 2012. This is really about an implementation of Kyoto protocol, but what is important is what we're going to do beyond 2012."

It all comes down to sustainability, says Mr. Christen.

"We'd like to be in business 100 years from now, and that means we have to something now. If we don't start thinking about the impact of climate change in Canada and around the world 30 or 40 years from now, we will be facing serious threats to the sustainability of our business."

Assistant Professor Simone Pulver, who studies environmental advocacy and politics at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, notes that there are many different kinds of groups that attend international conferences like this one -- and just as many different reasons for doing so.

"The obvious ones are environmental NGOs, business groups, and industry NGOs, and there are also research NGOs, which is the category that I fall into."

As part of her ongoing study into NGO participation on climate change negotiations, Ms. Pulver has been tracking the presence of business NGOs over time -- and she says that the one of the largest delegations is that of the International Emissions Trading Association, which is very much in favour of Kyoto.

"Since they're an emissions trading organization, they're in favour, as is World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which is the second largest business delegation. They're also in favour of Kyoto."

While many American delegations represent the more conservative side of the business NGO spectrum, Ms. Pulver points to other U.S. groups like the Pew Institute, which is also a supporter of emissions reduction.

"There's a range of perspectives in the United States," she says.

Regardless of whether an organization is friend or foe, conferences like this hold plenty of opportunities to get a point of view across.

"They can lobby in the halls, and figure out what's on the table and what the position is, as well as use contacts to make sure their positions are heard," says Ms. Pulver.

"There is also usually an opportunity to do side events, which is a good forum to present your ideas. The audience varies, but sometimes there are delegates, as well as state representatives and other NGOs."

Although the United States isn't party to Kyoto, it does have non-participant status in Montreal.

"You definitely want to be talking to your home country delegation, but it's also a chance to talk to like-minded delegations. Australia has announced that it won't ratify Kyoto, and there are other countries as well."

For most NGOs, the most pressing reason for attending the Montreal conference isn't to debate the pros and cons of Kyoto, says Ms. Pulver.

"What's really on the agenda at this meeting is not necessarily Kyoto, but what comes after. The Kyoto Treaty is to some extent a done deal, but these groups have a really strong interest in what happens after 2012, and that's going to be the focus of the discussion."

http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2005/november/23/agenda/

Topic(s): climate news, Energy News, More Enviro News, policy news

Posted By EcoBC

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