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1. Mandy
   Administrator

   FOSSIL OF THE DAY AWARDS
   Bonn, Germany, 2nd June

   The Climate Action Network (CAN), a coalition of over 450 NGOs worldwide, gives out three 'Fossil of The Day' awards to the countries who perform the worst during the past days negotiations at the UN climate change conference.

   The awards given out on June 2, 2009 in Bonn, Germany were as follows!

   Saudi Arabia was awarded First Place. While countries are mainly concerned about the impacts of climate change, Saudi Arabia is most concerned with the impacts of climate change action on their pockets!

   Have you heard about the insurance mechanism that small island states are asking for? The one that they need in case their country goes under water, and they can't adapt anymore? Well, now Saudi Arabia is requesting for a similar insurance mechanism that would pay for any loss in their oil trade.

   The Second Prize Fossil went to Russia. At a side-event yesterday Russia representative Sergey Tulinov said that Russia will continue insisting to include dangerous and inefficient nuclear activities in the JI and CDM. Russia was also won the award because, since 2004, the GHG emissions in Russia have continued to GROW, not decline. The emission reduction after 1990 happened because of the Soviet Union collapse, not because of efforts to achieve a sustainable low-carbon economy.

   The Third Prize was awarded to New Zealand. New Zealand received their award for refusing to table a mid-term national emissions reduction target at yesterday afternoon's AWG-KP Plenary and for saying that it will table a target in August. New Zealand has dismantled much of its domestic climate change programme including: raiding the public transport budget to build more roads, overturning a partial ban on thermal power stations, abandoning a phase out of inefficient light bulbs and subsidising fossil fuel exploration.

   Leon White, New Zealand citizen from Katikati accepted the award on behalf of New Zealand saying “New Zealand once claimed to be leaders on tackling climate change, then in the middle of the pack, but its now lagging behind.”

   About the fossils:

   The Fossil-of-the-day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, also in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum.

   During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), a worldwide network of over 450 non-governmental organisations, vote for three countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.

   Media contact:
   Anna Keenan
   anna.keenan@youthclimatecoalition.org

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. Kirstie
   User Profile

   They've just won another too!
   This time thay came joint 2nd with Japan!

   Thursday, 11 June 2009, 4:16 pm
   Press Release: Climate Action Network

   Fossil of the Day Awards – Wednesday
   Bonn Climate Negotiations

   Bonn, Germany, June 10, 2009: CAN International awarded its Fossil of the Day award to the following country judged best at blocking progress over the last day of negotiations.

   Third place: Australia, for making a very unhelpful intervention on REDD at the first formal meeting to discuss, among other things, a possible REDD mechanism. Instead of strongly asserting that REDD should be about protecting forests and avoiding deforestation, they focused their discussion of the scope of REDD on Afforestation and Reforestation and the enhancement of carbon stocks. Translation? Promotion of the plantation forest agenda.

   In the absence of safeguards, Australia’s proposal would cause a devastating loss of natural forests due to money and carbon credits going to plantations, not forest protection.

   Second Place: New Zealand and Japan, For seeking to remove numbers for aggregate Annex 1 targets at an informal meeting of the AWG-KP. Not only has Japan offered a weak national target and New Zealand not offered a target at all, they have both tried to remove any reference to aggregate target numbers from the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. They need to stop trying to get off the hook and agree to strong action to tackle climate change. No numbers is an unacceptable outcome.

   First Place: Russia, for saying nothing on national 2020 emission targets. On Monday, Yvo de Boer urged Japan and Russia to set their 2020 targets. Japan complied, though with a weak goal. Even worse, Russia completely ignored the request. Russia ignored not only Yvo, but NGOs and those around the world, who are waiting for annex I countries to set 2020 emission targets.

   Furthermore, at today's SBI contact group meeting to formalize text on arrangements for intergovernmental meetings, Russia objected to language stating that "all meetings should end by 6 PM... but may, in exceptional circumstances, continue to no later than 9 PM." Russia claimed that meetings running beyond 6 PM would put a strain on their delegation. This from a country whose repeated interventions kept the closing plenary at COP 11 in Montreal going well beyond midnight!

   Has Russia considered that it is perhaps their lack of a 2020 target that, among other things, is forcing negotiations to go past 6 PM?

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. Kirstie
   User Profile

   And another!
   See Climate Change Action Thread.

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. Kirstie
   User Profile

   Oh dear - two fossil awards in one day.
   New Zealand really is not selling itself well on the international claimate change scene :(

   Below follows the latest ECO from Bankok. ECOs are produced at international meetings by NGO observing the meeting. They have been an institution since the 1970s.

   Kiwi Trickery

   New Zealand received a Fossil yesterday for threatening that unless it has access to unlimited offsets, it will reduce its target to zero. In doublespeak: unless New Zealand is allowed to avoid having to reduce its emissions, it will refuse to reduce its emissions. This prompted ECO to find out more about New Zealand’s "special" national circumstances that have led to such an irresponsible point of view.

   At a time when the rest of the world is working out how to reduce emissions, New Zealand seems to be working out the fastest way possible to go in the opposite direction. It has increased fossil fuel subsidies, raided the public transport budget to build new roads, abandoned its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, removed a partial ban on coal fired power stations and is even considering drilling for oil in the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage Area.

   In fact, while negotiators meet in Bangkok, New Zealand’s Parliament is considering plans to convert its emissions trading scheme into an intensity-based scheme with no cap.
   So there you have it. New Zealand’s "special" national circumstance is a thorough commitment to raising emissions. ECO borrows from New Zealand’s national tourism branding to have the last word. New Zealand’s national circumstances are 100% pure ....

   For other climate talk ECOs see http://www.climatenetwork.org/eco/

   Posted 2 years ago #

5. BORHAN
   User Profile

   Australia truly deserves that "award". But I sympathise with New Zealand. Anyone who had been to New Zealand would have nothing but praise the beauty of the countryside and the excellent climate. Understandably, once you were at the forefront, it is not easy to remain there as people continue looking at you and make you as the benchmark. But New Zealand is indeed an amazing country.

   Posted 2 years ago #

6. black tomtit
   User Profile

   I have said it before and will say it again. We were an environmentally friendly country in the 1980s but since 2000 there seems to be a backlash against the environmental movement. I have noticed more and more anti environmental letters to the editor and at university I overheard another student say there was no such thing as global warming as well as anti 1080 stickers stuck up around the campus. What do overseas tourists think when they come here thinking the country is a land of environmentalists only too see the wildlife being attacked by dogs and beaten to death by vandals. Such an event happened in November last year when tourists to the Catlins saw yellow eyed penguins being dragged up the beach by a huge rottweiler that was not allowed on that beach. In my opinion the tourists should take a photo of the carnage or film it to get evidence against the attackers. Al Gore said in An Inconvienient Truth that yellow eyed penguins are threatened by global warming and are in the throws of another disease, avian diptheria which could be because of the warming. As for Russia it has always been a rogue nation for the environment and it is disappointing to see it ratify Kyoto and then have its emissions fly up again.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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