[LINK] Internet enhanced meetings for post-Copenhagen

[Roger Clarke]

At 21:10 +1100 22/12/09, Stephen Wilson wrote:
>Anyone who seriously wants to consign an exercise as important as
>climate change negotiation to what is really a beta test of online
>collaboration tools barely out of the lab, has got their priorities
>totally arse-about.

Whereas anyone who champions a gab-fest involving vast numbers of 
both people and frequent-flyer points is, um, a switched-on realist?

________________________________________________________________

>Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>>  Ivan Trundle wrote:
>>
>>>  On 22/12/2009, at 8:42 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>  "The Copenhagen climate change negotiation involved tens of thousands of
>>>>  people travelling.
>>>>
>>>  And speaking, and talking with each other. It is impossible for 
>>>me to believe that CoP15 could be done BETTER online.
>>>
>>>  Which is a pity, since I work in this field, and derive my income 
>>>from EXACTLY such things that Tom postulates.
>>>
>>>  Having just picked up a delegate from Sydney Airport this very 
>>>morning, it's clear to me that online communication is not the 
>>>answer. 35,000 people need co-ordination on a scale which cannot 
>>>be achieved through online activity alone, even in Tom's pipe 
>>>dream.
>>>
>>>  One other thing: people think that political leaders are the key 
>>>to such events - they're most certainly NOT. It's the plenary 
>>>activities carried out by skilful negotiators, who bond with 
>>>like-minded individuals offline, who negotiate in a pragmatic way 
>>>which belies the effort that they put into these things, and 
>>>suggests a social activity which I doubt that I will ever see 
>>>become effective online. Face-to-face is the only way to further a 
>>>cause.
>>>
>>>
>>  <snip>
>>  Such a forum of world leaders is a
>>  costly exercise in terms of dollars and
>>  CO2 emissions. The organisers seemed to
>>  be unhappy about the hordes of uninvited
>>  guests (though it sounded like a great
>>  party!)
>>
>>  As I understand it this was a drafting
>>  exercise, plenty could be done online
>>  (perhaps using google wave) and via
>>  other forums...but if attending parties
>>  is your penchant, no amount of video
>>  conferencing is going to cut it.
>>
>>  An interesting analysis (video, audio
>>  and transcript) of the talks here:
>>
>>>  RAY SUAREZ: The Europeans were scratching their heads when it was 
>>>all over, because they're among the largest emitters, still. 
>>>Europe wanted some credit and some recognition for having taken 
>>>very serious steps toward limiting their emissions just in the 
>>>recent past, creating a continent-wide architecture for bringing 
>>>down the release of greenhouse gases into the air.
>>>
>>>  But you saw that picture at the end. Who was it? Jacob Zuma, the 
>>>president of South Africa, Lula da Silva, the leader of the 
>>>Brazilians, Wen Jiabao, the premier of China. It was the new kids 
>>>on the block, in effect, the ones that are going to be the biggest 
>>>global emitters in 2020 and 2030 that were sitting around that 
>>>table with President Obama.
>>>
>>>  JEFFREY BROWN: All right, now, looking ahead, there are clearly 
>>>some -- some calls for changing the process, right? We saw that 
>>>from Gordon Brown. What does that mean, actually? What are people 
>>>calling for to look ahead toward some of these next meetings?
>>>
>>>  RAY SUAREZ: Well, everybody is pointing to the fact that there 
>>>were 192 states gathered there, and everyone spoke as if the 
>>>smallest countries with very few emissions were the same as the 
>>>biggest countries with the biggest emissions, not when it came to 
>>>responsibility or who would pay what, but having a voice in the 
>>>proceedings.
>>>
>>>  And there's some speculation about how to do the spadework in 
>>>advance of the conference, so that the smallest countries in the 
>>>world, those, in fact, who have very little industries to cut back 
>>>emissions from, don't get to gum up the works by being able to 
>>>intrude on the councils of the biggest countries that have to 
>>>actually do the hardest work to get anything done.
>>>
>>  ...
>>
>>>  RAY SUAREZ: Some columnists over the weekend pointed out that 
>>>this may be the model that proves that the model doesn't work, 
>>>that Copenhagen may be the example that people point to years from 
>>>now and say, look, when you have got a problem as vast as this 
>>>one, as complicated as this one, getting 192 voices into the room 
>>>maybe isn't as useful as getting 20, 25 or even 40, when you need 
>>>to do something quickly and you need to do something comprehensive.
>>>
>>  <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec09/climate_12-21.html>
>>
>>  Marghanita
>>
>
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Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

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Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University