Ewart: Hell hath no fury like a Climate Conference Youth delegate scorned

.....What if all this talk of Climate Change is a HOAX, meanwhile China gets a free pass.

STEPHEN EWART, CALGARY HERALD

Published on: December 10, 2015

Holding a poster among NGO representatives and participants staging a sit-in protest closed to the plenary session and denouncing the first draft COP21 Climate Conference agreement, and putting pressure to reach an international agreement to limit global warming, during the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference. FRANCOIS MORI / AP

Until a deal emerges at the COP21 conference that puts the planet on a path to climate sustainability the most enduring image from Paris, for me, will be the stage-managed outrage from Canada’s youth delegation over a supposed snub at the UN gathering by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The hell on earth the planet is predicted to become — in the absence of proposed reductions in GHG emissions — will presumably hath no fury like youth delegates scorned.

“We are here to call out the Canadian government for only being interested in taking selfies with Canadian youth … and not actually listening to what we have to say,” said Katie Perfitt, a spokeswoman for the youth delegates, as they orchestrated their own photo op for media.

However self-important the collection of 20-somethings appeared, they tapped into the “name and shame” theme of the summit.

The PR stunt was one of the first indications Trudeau’s promise that Canada is “back” to play a constructive role at the UN climate process after years of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives wasn’t the all-encompassing, feel-good story it was portrayed as at outset of the two-week meeting of 180 countries.

Negotiators released a shorter draft of the international accord to fight global warming Wednesday, but it left key issues unresolved with two days before the talks are to conclude Friday. It appears only some provisions will be legally binding — and it won’t include punitive measures, such as trade sanctions, if countries don’t meet commitments — but will rely on peer pressure to achieve results.

Greenpeace climate activist Li Shuo used soccer to explain how it will work.

“Everything happens in the open in the stadium,” Li said. “So if someone fouls another player, even if he doesn’t get a red card, he will be booed by the audience.”

So this is where the world’s nations have arrived at after more than two decades of ever-larger summits to address what’s characterized as a “crisis” — a call to boo from the sidelines. I’m not convinced diplomatic peer pressure will resolve the immense energy and environment challenges shaping much of the global dialogue in the 21st century.

Experts point out non-binding treaties can be successful; the 1975 Helsinki Declaration on human rights, for example. But COP21 delegates are moving to establish a 1.5 degree C ceiling on temperature increases globally from pre-industrial levels and the planet surpassed 1 C this year.

If we’re in peril — and the UN’s climate models paint a grim picture — are best efforts and fair play sufficient?

Canada, for example, is on course to reduce GHG emissions to 1.2 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 but not the 17 per cent pledged at the UN’s 2009 summit in Copenhagen. However, the largest emitting province, Alberta, announced new climate policies ahead of Paris that will lower emissions.

Delegates in Paris are also pushing for action on concerns from First Nations about hydraulic fracturing in addition to curbing greenhouse gas emissions and rich nations providing billions in funding to poor countries to update their energy systems without fossil fuels and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Canada, which accounts for about 1.6 per cent of global GHGs, has more than 300 delegates at the conference — more than twice the U.S. delegation. I’m still not sure exactly what the eight premiers who accompanied Trudeau achieved in Paris anymore than the 17 youth delegates contributed to actually resolving climate issues.

More than 40,000 delegates seems excessive to the number of scientists, economists and negotiators required to address the issue, but I do know — my e-mail is flooded with self-promoting news releases from COP21 — environmental group 350.org is there and told me U.S. Secretary of State “John Kerry said what needs to be said …”

Good to know, delete.

It’s not quite so collegial north of the border.

Canada’s youth delegates are filing regular updates from COP21 to the Vancouver Ecosocialist andreported four of their members had been invited to join the Canadian delegation this week. They revealed their chagrin that executives from Suncor Energy and ATCO were also part of the delegation and decried how “companies profiting from the destruction of the planet have been identified as key stakeholders by the Canadian government.”

The article also noted how the chief of staff for Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna — former executive director of environmental group Pembina Institute, Marlo Raynolds, holds that job — “tried to ‘mansplain’ the climate crisis to us in a way that took the fossil fuel industry off the hook.”

Until there’s an effective, equitable and enforceable accord, it seems “name, shame and mansplain” will define Paris.