Monday, December 8th, 1997
By Lee Poston
Daily Diary Archives
He came, he spoke, he left
Vice-President of the United States Al Gore (or VPOTUS AG to those convention followers who can't avoid turning everything into an acronym) made a
whistle-stop tour of the Kyoto Climate Convention today, making a ministerial speech during the plenary session, followed by about 15 meetings in 16 hours,
including a press conference. One of those meetings was with members of environmental groups, including our very own Campaign Director, Adam Markham
About two hours before Gore's plenary speech, a buzz started building in the NGO/Press hall, as reporters began developing their stories based on the
preview speech that was circulating with the heading "Check Against Delivery." This basically means, "Go ahead and prepare your story ahead of time, but the veep
reserves the right to deviate from his prepared comments, in which case you will have to curse profusely and rush back to your laptop to completely rearrange
your story as deadline time rapidly approaches."
Well he did add something at the last minute -- an announcement that following consultation with President Clinton, he has instructed the negotiating
team to "show increased negotiating flexibility if a comprehensive plan can be put into place, one with realistic targets and timetables, market mechanisms, and
the meaningful participation of key developing countries." ("Hmm, could have shown some flexibility a year or so ago and we could all have got more sleep",
commented a disgruntled campaigner.)
What "increased flexibility means," nobody knows. But it was the one sign of life from a speech and resulting press conference that left more questions
than answers. He basically reiterated the current US position, of a stabilization target in the first budget period (about 2008) with trading, Joint
Implementation, six gases and meaningful participation of developing countries. The bottom line from WWF's concern is that there is still no meaningful US target
for emissions reductions that comes close to the other industrialized nations like the EU.
Also left open were plenty of loopholes such as the forest sink issue (using forests to offset carbon emissions). There is still nothing in the language
of the protocol that would prevent this part of the protocol from providing incentives for old-growth forest destruction.
The US plan also supports the inclusion of buying phantom emissions from Russia and other Central and Eastern European countries in order to avoid
emissions cuts at home. This so-called "hot air" and "superheated air" could render emissions reductions targets almost meaningless. If only I could draw you a
diagram, this would all be much simpler...
Immediately following the Vice President's speech, WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth convened a reaction briefing that soon turned into a
carnival, with the speakers surrounded by about 100 reporters and camera people. The wall of bodies, including many standing on chairs or paparazzi ladders was
so inpenetrable that several hours later, some reporters were seen emerging, mumbling something about needing clarification on a soundbite.
Following that briefing, Andrew "Have I Got the Vacuum Cleaner for You" Kerr organized an impromptu briefing to help clarify one of the more confusing
points in the speech while standing on a chair and waving a symbolic empty briefcase.
Basically, the whole scene was complete "Panda Monium." (Sorry, I just couldn't resist that cheap pun). Actually, it's symbolic of the stunts WWF has
pulled these past two -weeks, which have been low-cost, but high-result. Hey, who needs multimedia demonstrations when there's an empty grocery bag or briefcase
sitting around, right?!
Tomorrow should be a little more straightforward, as lobbyists return to lobbying, press people return to pressing people, and delegates return to
delegating. Breakthroughs would be wonderful, but we won't hold our breath. This one will probably go down to the wire.