The Wrecking Crew at Work

Anger is rising against the U.S. here in Bali. Delegates are taking off the “white gloves” of diplomacy and calling out the U.S. by name. They are calling for the U.S. to come to the table and agree to specific goals for emissions reductions.

The new code name for the U.S. and its co-conspirators Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia, is The Wrecking Crew. The Bush Administration’s SPIN strategy, the press is told, is to act as if they were willing to negotiate … then blame any collapse of the conference on the developing countries and their unwillingness to cooperate on U.S. terms.

If you, dear column reader, have any good ideas for engaging the U.S. in this process, please add your comments below. 

At today’s Climate Action Network (CAN) daily briefing, they warned that the U.S., is attempting to destroy the building blocks of agreements.

CAN, which represents more than 450 NGOs, reported that the U.S. is trying to destroy the Bali agreement by working to pull language out that has almost universal agreement, and inserting language that they are certain the developing countries won’t accept.  

An agreement to fund Adaptation measure after 2012 has fallen off the table. This is serious. The UN Conference on Climate Change is moving into its final 36 hours of negotiations. Will adaptation will be put back on the table in the final hours? Current news stories involving the World Bank role as trustee for the Adaptation fund refer to previous agreements, now being implemented in Bali for the next five years.

 Technology transfer is another goal that is being resisted by The Wrecking Crew. The transfer of clean technology to developing countries is the trillion dollar baby at the Bali conference. Everyone agrees it is needed. The issue under debate here is how developed countries can move clean energy technologies rapidly into the developing world. The developing world needs this technology today.  Unlike market mechanisms like “cap and trade,” technology transfer would put funding, patents and licensing agreements on the table. As the world moves beyond peak oil, it would form the basis of a shift to renewable energy.  

Most clean technology that would be transferred is small scale and works well at the micro venture level. I’m not sure how much of this technology would include funding for nuclear energy, hydrogen, and so-called clean coal.

How much money would go to big business ventures? How much to fund the micro level?

The price tag of tech transfer is estimated at a trillion dollars. It would require significant involvement and money from developed countries and the global financial community. It’s inclusion in the final Bali Roadmap is still not certain.