20140924_YD
Source: RTCC
URL: http://climatechange-tv.rtcc.org/2014/09/24/new-york-climate-summit-yvo-de-boer/
Date: 24/09/2014
Event: Yvo de Boer on "a good opportunity to take the climate process out of its coma"
Credit: RTCC
People:
- Yvo de Boer: Former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC
- Edward King: Editor, RTCC
Yvo de Boer: I think it's a very important moment, in the sense that most politicians, I believe, left Copenhagen with a massive climate-change hangover, given how that conference went, there. They were then almost fully taken up by the economic crisis, the financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis, and basically climate has been off the radar screen of politicians since Copenhagen in 2009. So this, I think is a very important moment to get a sense of whether politicians really are able to re-engage on this topic at a senior level and make something happen in Paris next year.
Edward King: What kind of signs would you say people should be looking out for from today, in terms of understanding whether the process is moving forward?
Yvo de Boer: I think indications from countries that they want to be ambitious on climate change, that they want to take domestic action, and most importantly that they want to see an agreement reached in Paris next year.
Edward King: And how encouraged are you, from a green growth perspective, to see the level of integration that businesses had, in this particular summit, and the - I guess, the increased involvement that some CEOs seem to be having with the process?
Yvo de Boer: I think that's very positive - unfortunately, it's a little bit by default, in the sense that, if I think back to the Rio+20 summit, just about a year and a half ago, where political leaders were largely absent and it was the business leaders who were actually taking the lead and saying "We want to get serious about sustainability", in a broad sense. And in a way, politicians and business leaders are moving forward in tandem here, and that, I think, is positive.
Edward King: There will be people - just talking to journalists in the press room - who will say, you know, we haven't seen any really tangible announcements today - the world is still on course to break warming of 2 degrees, 3 degrees, 4 degrees, therefore this summit has not been a success. Is that a fair way of looking at this - this day?
Yvo de Boer: I don't think it is - I mean, the summit's only just begun. Let's see what happens in the course of the day. There'll be the summit itself, there will be a business leaders' meeting - I expect significant announcements from the business community, I expect positive progress on finance, on which the World Bank and others have been very active, and I expect a number of strong statements from countries that they want to see happen - something happen in Paris next year.
Edward King: And behind the scenes, what kind of meetings do you expect will be taking place between delegations and world leaders? Are we - should we, you know, expect that there are, at some level, negotiations taking place on various aspects of climate change?
Yvo de Boer: There are. I mean, immediately before this event, there was an um, a - what's it called - the World En- no, Major Economies Forum meeting, which was a good opportunity for that group to get together. Events like this are always used by countries to have bilaterals - I'm sure there will be conversations here between the US and China, which is absolutely critical to an advance. So this is not just important as an event but important in terms of the platform that it offers, for bilateral engagement.
Edward King: And a final point - in terms of the UN climate process, do you really sense it has rediscovered a bit of its - a bit of its mojo, as someone said on Sunday, during the climate march, where a lot of the NGOs seemed to feel that they were, sort of, back in business? Um, but from your perspective, is it too early to say that yet, or do you sense there is a renewed confidence?
Yvo de Boer: I think a lot depends on what'll happen in Lima, at the climate conference in Lima in a couple of months' time. I mean, there is now a paper from the Co-Chair - from the Co-Chairs, outlining the main issues that will need to be covered in the Paris agreement. But at the moment, that's an awful lot of bullet points, and the question is: will that explode into something unmanageable? Or will they be able to turn it into a manageable document for further negotiation on the road to Paris?
Edward King: And a quick one on that - there is still, it seems, debate over this famed "firewall". Is that debate as simple as saying there are developed countries on one side and developing on the other, or do you sense there is a kind of blurring of those lines, um, as we move towards Paris?
Yvo de Boer: I think there's very clearly a blurring of the lines - I think the line has disappeared, in the sense that Paris is very clearly about all countries taking commitments, all countries engaging, all countries taking action. And of course that action will differ, depending on the economic status of a country, on its economic capabilities to act - but very clearly Paris - for Paris to be a success requires all countries to engage, according to their capabilities.
Edward King: One final question - in terms of what happens tomorrow, next week and in the months to come, you mentioned Lima but you've got a lot of leaders turning up today who haven't talked much about climate change in the past few years, perhaps some of them since Copenhagen. What can be done to ensure that they stay involved in this process?
Yvo de Boer: Well, I'll be very interested to see if Ban Ki-moon organises another of these events next September, just a couple of months ahead of Paris. I think that that would actually be a very good idea. In a sense, this is a good opportunity to take the climate process out of its coma, from a political point of view, and re-engage political leaders. But Paris is still quite far away. So if something like this were to happen again in September of 2015, just a couple of months before the Paris conference, I think that would be a perfect opportunity to really focus leaders, at that moment in time, on the key political issues that need to be resolved.