17th Global Climate Change Conference Achieves Breakthrough!

Well, not really. At least I don’t think so, despite some media reports claiming a “breakthrough.”

What actually happened at the seventeenth (count ‘em, 17!!) conference of the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” held in Durban, South Africa, was that nations promised to work towards a new treaty, which will supposedly be agreed to by 2020. In other words, they kicked the can down the road another nine years.

There was also a promise to create a fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change (a tacit admission that more warming is unavoidable, and not a “myth” as American reactionaries, including virtually all Republican politicians, and corporate rags like the Wall Street Journal, strenuously insist), but without any actual money amounts specified or pledged. Kind of like a “Have a nice day!,” an insincere expression of goodwill.

So that was the outcome of 72 hours of wrangling.

Under Obama, the U.S. still insists that “developing” nations like India, China, and Brazil shouldn’t get any special dispensation.

The European Union had wanted a “road map” spelling out the route to a legally binding treaty, but caved under Chinese and Indian pressure and U.S. fecklessness. Instead they had to settle for the sop of a vague promise of some future treaty or other that might or might not be actually ratified.

Recall that the moribund, ineffective Kyoto Treaty (which the U.S. always refused to sign, in part thanks to the utterly reactionary United States Senate, which unfortunately must ratify all treaties as per the U.S. “Constitution.”) was agreed to back in 1997, 14 years ago. So we’ll be into over 2 decades of stalling and foot-dragging, assuming there even is

an agreement in 2020.

Rabidly reactionary U.S. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma (what is it with that state? Is it an open air insane asylum?) a fanatical, rage-filled climate science hater, gloated in a video to his demented followers about the failure of the conference to actually do anything.

The assessment of the climate change and energy “fellow” at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, an organization of top-level U.S. Brahmins, a guy named Michael A. Levi, was a bit on the gloomy side:

“It is difficult to avoid concluding that the Europeans ultimately blinked.” “The reality is that there is no more agreement on the future of the climate talks than there was when negotiators first convened two weeks ago.” [I.e. NO progress was made AT ALL.] “Europe will continue to insist on a full-blown legally binding agreement; China and India will continue to oppose one; and the United States, while leaving the door open to an agreement that is binding for all, will continue to be unenthusiastic as well. These positions are largely rooted in incompatible views of the future, and there is no reason to believe that more talking will change them.” I.e., no reason to think there will actually be a meaningful treaty by 2020.

Aww gee, Mike, why you gotta bring people down? Can’t you find a silver lining to focus on? How about this: they didn’t throw their shoes at each other. That’s something!

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