a candle in the winds of change

After a week and a half of reading about climate negotiations, I'm experiencing Bali burnout. I can't imagine what it must be like for the poor sods who are actually there in the ring. But if I feel like switching off, it's not so much because it feels like a ten-day carbon binge, but rather because I find the politics disheartening. Week one was easy, no commitment required. Soften everyone up, issue encouraging statements, feel the lay of the land before delivering a left hook in week two.

In all likelihood, the real punchline on the final day will be that there is no knockout blow to global warming. No magic strategy to solve global ills. No elegant solution, just a messy tangle of promises to reach agreement sometime in the next two years. Indeed, that's all some people are hoping for as an outcome of these two weeks: a commitment to negotiate a global deal under the UNFCCC. Not the deal itself.

The trouble with negotiated settlements is that they tend to find the lowest common denominator as the only acceptable solution, and that's not what we're looking for here. We're looking for inspiration, innovation and integrity. Not just minor tweaking, but a dramatic mindshift in how we think about the way things work. One of the subtexts of this conference, ECO notes, is that "given the gravity of climate change, climate stabilisation must become a new lens through which the rules of trade and finance are viewed. Re-prioritised values must guide global governance to recognise ecological limits and to agree on equitable ways to live within them. Proper alignment of trade policy and climate response is an important task that should not to be taken lightly or quickly."

With 2007 feeling like a turning point as more politicians recognised the need to address climate change, I had subconsciously assumed that this would bring negotiators together with a sense of common purpose. Silly me. Politicians haven't changed, they've just been shoved into a dark room and the only thing they are sure of is that they have to find a way out. We need some enlightened leaders. (See Cutting through the Bali knot.)