Day 3 (Monday 8th December)

It’s my final day at the UN Climate Conference in Poznan.

As I mentioned earlier, the EU is in a bit of a stalemate regarding the negotiations as it hasn’t reached an agreement on its position as a bloc. The EU, under French presidency at the moment, hopes to secure an agreement by the 11th or 12th of December.

Poland, Germany and Italy seem to be the main players holding back the deal. German Chancellor Merkel is meeting with her Polish counterparts tomorrow. A public demonstration is planned in Warsaw tomorrow outside the meeting to show the widespread support across Europe for action on climate change. Despite previously being seen as a leader on the issue of climate change, the German Chancellor is now backtracking amid claims that climate change must take a backseat due to the global economic downturn.

The financial crisis is increasingly being quoted as a reason for inaction on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. However, world leaders must understand that not spending now will only increase the cost of action later, when the effects are taking hold even more strongly.

The Stern Review has predicted that an increase in average global temperatures of between two and three degrees Celsius will reduce global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 5-10%. Furthermore, the cost of stabilising our emissions to avoid this two degree rise would be roughly 1% of global GDP. So the economic argument is there! It makes good economic sense to deal with this now. Leaders just need to listen and show some political will.

In addition, the financial crisis goes to show that money can be found to avert global problems when the will is there. Reducing poverty and tackling climate change are global challenges that must go hand-in-hand, and for challenges of this scale, global commitment to the solutions must be shown. We’re all hoping that the EU will reach an agreement by the end of this week and come back to Poznan ready to negotiate the proposals that have been put forward by the Group of 77 developing countries plus China.

As one campaigner said to me:

“It’s not a lack of knowledge about how grave the situation is, nor is it a lack of ideas on what the solutions need to be. The reason these talks are stalling is that the short-term good of the few is being placed far above the long-term good of the majority.”

Please support SCIAF’s work throughout 2009 to campaign for a just and equitable global deal on climate change at the UN. We need your support to demonstrate to our leaders that we won’t stand for a system that puts the profits of the few above the needs of the majority. With your help, we have already won real progress with the Scottish Climate Change Bill, but until other countries follow suit we cannot stop campaigning.

Look out for your campaign postcard in the January Review magazine, or click here to send an email as part of the global CIDSE/Caritas coalition.