Wrong venue?
It may not be politically correct to say so, but was Nairobi really a good choice of venue for the recent UN Conference on Climate Change? From the Economist’s point of view (and I’ll admit I haven’t searched further for confirmation or contradiction) it was a depressing waste of time, with many important players missing and no appetite to talk about what is needed in terms of action from the political and regulatory sphere:
Given the scientists’ pessimism, the lack of constructive political thinking in Nairobi was doubly depressing. Nobody wanted to talk about the ways in which taxation might best be used to encourage individuals to limit their carbon footprints. Or how to reconcile the needs of industry, which would like to see predictable cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases over a long period, with demands from scientists for deeper cuts over a shorter period.
Clearly it is not the only reason the conference had so little impact, but I can’t help thinking that its relative remoteness to the source or root of the problem - namely the large Northern Hemisphere economies (and emitters of greenhouse gases) - contributed to the lack of urgency and material progress at the conference. Los Angeles or Washington or London or Berlin or Shanghai would all have been more effective venues in my opinion. Why? Much easier for key world political leaders to attend (or harder to justify not attending), much easier for key private investors / leaders (a la Clinton Global Initiative in NYC) to attend (and harder to justify not attending) and the likelyhood of a much more active and vocal and visible local community and news profile (rallies, ancilliary activities and conferences, etc.) This all may not be ‘fair’, and may well be regrettable in the context of striving for global inclusiveness, especially in this case as many of the most damaging consequences of global warming will likely be felt in Africa. But I think, giving the importance of the agenda and the potential shortness of time, that the UN should have focused primarily on creating the highest impact when organising this conference. Regular readers will know that I am fascinated by the challenges and opportunities faced by the African continent in the years and decades to come, and clearly the world community needs to do a better job at connecting Africa, but there are better opportunities than this one to do so.
