Paris climate talks: As world leaders head home, negotiators get to work at COP21
WHO:More than 100 world leaders
WHAT:made speeches, posed for photos and then flew home
WHERE: in Paris
WHEN:not given
WHY:not given
HOW:not given
More than 100 world leaders arrived, made speeches, posed for photos and then flew home. But the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris does not end for another two weeks.
So what happens now at the world's biggest gathering on global warming?
The nations get down to the nitty gritty.
Howard Bamsey is an adjunct professor at the Australian National University. Previously he was deputy secretary of Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and Australia's lead negotiator at the UN climate conferences.
He estimates he has been to at least 18 of the 21 conferences.
"The most important event, in terms of the expectations of the people who are looking on, is the negotiations themselves," he said.
In the lead-up to the Paris conference, a draft version of the international agreement to limit global warming was circulated.
This week, negotiators from each nation will break into specialist teams, each taking a section of the draft to consider, Professor Bamsey said.
"At this stage they're all in these smaller groups working on a limited set of issues. All separately," he said.
"So in the Australian delegation, every morning there'll be a meeting where the negotiators from the different groups come together and inform one another what's been happening in their groups so they can make the connections and see how the whole thing is shaping up.
"It's really difficult to judge what the whole picture is unless you're able to keep in touch with the different processes that are happening at the same time."
Gruelling, complex negotiations not for the 'impatient'
Professor Bamsey says negotiations happen both formally and informally, day and night, in a gruelling process for the delegates.
Sometimes talks become stuck when one nation will not budge on a particular issue.
"They insist on full discussion. They want their outcome and they won't back down very easily. So at different points, different parts of the text become a blockage to the agreement as a whole," he said.
But judging which issue to move on from and where to stand firm is all part of complex and often unrelated issues.
"What might look like a completely straightforward negotiating process is filled with all this significance that isn't apparent on the surface," Professor Bamsey said.
"So you can see inordinate amounts of time given to negotiating what might seem to be quite straightforward text.
"The ones that are invested in significance ... they can take a long time to resolve.
"Unless you're part of the process, you can become very impatient with the time taken to resolve those because they may not look on the surface as if they're significant at all."
By about Saturday, he said various pieces of the text should be settled or decisions made in a draft form.
From there, the negotiating baton is passed to the next level up. That is usually the most senior negotiators, or ministers.
"That's when the final trade-offs are made," he said.
Circus of the talks can help negotiations
The 2015 conference aims to have the text fairly well nailed down by the middle of the next week.
In the meantime, outside the often closed-door haggling over draft text, businesses, activist groups, think tanks and academics all gather in what has become the world's biggest trade-fair for climate change ideas and industry.
Professor Bamsey said the associated circus could be an indirect contribution to the negotiation process.
"In many cases delegates won't have a lot of time to get to side events. Often what's happening there is indirectly conveyed to the negotiating process," he said.
"Very often you'll hear insights that will inform an issue that's being negotiated or there's the sense of momentum that's imparted by this vast number of side events and stories about climate action.
"That sense of momentum can have a positive impact on the negotiating process."
keyword:
get down to the nitty gritt: 言歸正傳
deputy: 代表
draft version:草案
circulated:傳播
section:部分 delegation:代表團
shaping up:塑造
straightforward:明確的
inordinate:無節制的
momentum:動力
Global Warming has been a significant issue around the world.If we keep
回覆刪除destroying our mother land,we might be extinct,and our planet will vanish.
To prevent this horrible event,we should take some actions.First,sort garbage.Second,don't use plastic bag when you are shopping.Third,turn
out the light,if you don't use it anymore.Saving the world is a big event,
everyone should be serious at this issue.
We all know that the Climate Change Conference in Paris is important; however, the work carried out by the negotiators afterward can be more detailed and significant. They have to discuss every issue, and this tough work takes them a lot of time to make little process. All we can do is to expect our environmental problem can be solved after they achieve this complex work.
回覆刪除Mr.White