Australia: Cancún Half-time Scores · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

It’s Monday of the second week of COP16 Cancún. Time for a sample of what Australians have been saying online.
My favourite is Christine Macrae, a young Australian woman at Cancún who is blogging at Diary of COP16 WAGGGS youth delegate. That’s the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Her posts are both informative and entertaining:
In the late afternoon, I was interviewed for US radio! They wanted to know what Girl Guides have to do with Climate Change action and what were hoping to achieve at the COP. Well, after four days on the job, I was able to give the reporter the full spiel – I added in so much detail that she actually asked me to make it simpler and only give her a few sentences!
Day 6
Brain has one of Larvatus Prodeo’s regular Cancún roundups. Kyoto versus Copenhagen seems an insurmountable problem:
Essentially the developing countries don’t want to sign up to anything unless there is a legally binding Kyoto extension. The developed countries need to show good faith and accept their responsibility. The USA wants to replace Kyoto with the Copenhagen Accord, presumably because it would be less onerous to them. American climate deniers and the American fossil fuel industry cast a long shadow.
Cancún half way
Philip Ireland, Oz representative for Adopt A Negotiator, seems more optimistic at the ABC’s Drum:
It is not anticipated that we will get a full treaty from this meeting. However, there are key decisions that can be made in Cancun that can move us towards a meaningful international climate agreement.
He discusses Australia’s possible role in the negotiations:
The Climate Minister [Greg Combet], and Australia's whole negotiating team, can contribute to real progress in Cancun. By negotiating ambitiously and generously, Australia can be a leader. And leaders are desperately needed to move this process forward.
Moving forward in Cancun
A view from the right comes from Tim Wilson of the Institute of Public Affairs. Writing at Online Opinion he hammers the financial, and hence political, implications of climate mitigation:
In response to the proposal, chief US climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing has described the financial demands on the US from some countries as being “staggering sums out of line with reality”.
But there's been no discussion in Australia about how our contribution will be financed, including whether previous proposals for new taxes on internationally traded goods will be imposed that will disproportionately harm geographically isolated economies dependent on trade.
Nightmare on Cancun Street
Alex Schlotzer at THEANGLE.ORG is pessimistic about the future of our near neighbours:
But will Cancun do what Copenhagen didn’t for the Pacific Nations?
The answer is no, unfortunately. Not if the record of the world’s government’s is anything to go by. If the global community cannot move more quickly the Pacific Nations face an even more uncertain future.
Will Cancun Do What Copenhagen Didn’t for the Pacific Nations?
It’s a pity that more nations are not following Baden Powell’s motto to “Be Prepared”.