Posted on 09/01/12
With the UN COP17 Durban Climate Summit to commence 20 days
later, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office held a Climate Change
Question Time on the 8th November. I attended this as
a member of Plan UK's Youth Climate Network (YCN), alongside
members representing youth groups from UNICEF, the UK Youth Climate
Coalition (UKYCC) and Oxfam.
The event in Westminster was held to link young people from the
UK and South Africa, allowing them the opportunity to pose
questions to a panel including figures who will hold influential
roles at Durban. The panel consisted of William Hague (Foreign
Secretary), Chris Huhne (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate
Change), Mxakato-Diseko (Ambassador of South Africa) and Martin
Davidson (Chief Executive at the British Council). A live webcast
of the Q&A session was broadcast and some of the questions
originated from this international audience too. As part of the
orchestrated nature of such events, the questions asked had all
been preselected from some sent by the audience prior to the day.
Yet this, whilst allowing the panellists to prepare themselves, did
not always impede the questions from probing into controversial
grounds.
One questioner asked whether climate change is now, more than
ever, an 'inconvenient truth'. The panel reached a general
consensus in agreeing that, to the contrary, the economic downturn
provides perhaps the greatest opportunity for changing the current
status-quo and finding ways to move to a sustainable way of living,
which in itself would help to tackle future economic growth
successfully. Chris Huhne went one step further by suggesting that
the world is at the beginning of a third revolution (akin to the
industrial and electrical revolutions), on the basis that after
previous similar recessions, growth did not come through
traditional but new areas of business. Whereas, in the 1930's, this
was the case for the emerging car industry, he believes that
low-carbon goods and services will come to serve such a role.
However, Dame Mxakato-Diseko added that climate change is likely to
pose a great threat for reaching the Millenium Goals, to female
emancipation, education and income generation in developing
countries due to its adverse effects in such, already typically
impoverished, regions.
The next question addressed what action the Government is taking
to invest in renewable energy. Chris Huhne said they are taking a
'4-pronged strategy' to ensure the UK does not remain reliant on
fossil fuels: reductions in energy consumption through increasing
efficiency savings, particularly in homes and buildings; reaching
or overshooting the EU's target for the proportion of energy
sources which are renewable (15% per country by 2020, for which the
UK ranked poorly as 25th out of the 27 EU nations in
2009); expansion in the nuclear sector and, finally, more
'responsible' use of fossil fuels through carbon capture and
storage. William Hague and Martin Davidson felt that becoming
examples to other institutions and businesses by reducing their own
consumption were important and it was claimed that the FCO had
saved 18% in fuel, whilst the British Council saved £38,000, in one
year through such measures. Dame Mxakato-Diseko explained that,
since South Africa is a developing nation, it has been especially
reliant on mining and fossil fuels; as such, radical measures had
to be taken without compromising the population's wellbeing to
improve its performance. She claimed South Africa has made 37% of
energy savings from its efforts so far. Martin Davidson argued
further that engaging young people through climate change ought to
play a key role. Improving their advocacy skills and having them
engage in critical debates would help to create the crucial,
necessary commitment from individuals for action to be taken - a
'movement' - and prevent a situation of 'politicians talking to
politicians'.
Another question came in two parts, the second from a South
African webcast observer. Firstly, what would the UK be doing to
ensure the negotiations in Durban will be a success and, secondly,
what were the panellists' opinions on COP17 being widely regarded
as unlikely to be a success? Chris Huhne responded by admitting
that he had recently become much more optimistic about the
conference's possible outcomes, but that it remained 'clear' an
agreement would not be reached and this round of negotiations would
merely act as a stepping-stone to one eventually being made. He
felt that, given 2020 is the deadline for emission cuts to be
achieved in order to avoid the precarious 2˚C rise in the world's
average temperature, the UN nations were pushed for time. However,
he said what is required from Durban is a commitment to reaching an
overall legally binding deal which brings emission limits in line
with one framework. This should continue the idea of 'common but
differentiated responsibilities' to account for countries'
different stages of development. Furthermore, Parliament has
a responsibility to push hard for an extension of the
legally-binding Kyoto protocol, due to expire in a year's time.
Dame Mxakato-Diseko praised the UK Government for its support of
South Africa in its preparations for the Durban summit. For
example, 80 ministers from UN countries had been drawn together in
two meetings organised by the UK in the run up to Durban. However,
she added there were big political issues to address: that the
UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol are not universal and do not cover all
the emissions required to avoid a 2˚C global temperature rise. At
the same time, owing to various barriers like financial concerns,
it would be wrong to 'heap on demands' that were
unmaintainable.
Other subjects were covered - such as the UK Government's recent
decision to cut the solar feed-in tariff by 50%, plus the
panellists' personal efforts against climate change - which
generated some interesting debates and can be viewed on the FCO's
website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=686447482).
After the Question Time, we were given the chance to talk to
Chris Huhne personally as part of our groups. This was more of a
photo-op than chance to interrogate and the YCN used it to complete
the 'handover' of our campaign, One Step, for which we had gathered
several thousand pledges from young people to reduce their carbon
footprints through simple, individualised actions (partly as an
example to the Government, with COP17 in mind). He received this
well and expressed that young people should be able to feel they
have an influential voice and role.
Overall, I left the event with a feeling of cautious optimism.
Whilst a lot of positivity was expressed by the panel in regards to
opportunities to be had and achievements already made, I could not
reconcile this very easily with the scale of the issues which
remain to be tackled in order to avoid the least repercussions of
climate change and effect a global transition to sustainability. On
the other hand, if science and engineering may progress unimpeded
and the opportunities they throw up are harnessed, with young
people skilled and resourced to continue that progress, things
could look up.
Yasmin Keddad
Engineering Intern