The issue of Climate Change has been made so complicated even though in reality it’s a simple one. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted by 192 countries in New York in 1992, eventually gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol adopted in Japan in 1997. This protocol has since become the blueprint by which signatory countries (technically referred to as parties) promised to abide by certain policies to help tackle the effects of global warming. Of course ten of the original parties decided not to be bound by this document: almighty USA is the big brother country which opted out. I’ll just give you a few of the things expected from countries under the Kyoto Protocol;

1. They must promote sustainable forms of agriculture in light of climate change considerations
2. Take measures to limit or reduce green house gases and
3. Research on and promote development and increase use of new and renewable forms of energy…..and of advanced and innovative environmentally sound technologies. There was also emission targets set for richer industrialised countries.

So fast forward to Accra, 10 years after Kyoto was signed, none of the targets have been met. Little has been done in terms of conservation, reduction in emission, deforestation. The Accra talks are a kind of crisis talks to “force” countries come to some form of agreement on concrete action plans. Of course diplomatically, “force” is unacceptable. But the reality is that, with a few more Tsunamis, and a few more Northern floods, and melting of the artic and depletion of the Amazon forest, I should think the world must be waking up to smell the coffee. No more time to waste on concrete plans, like President Kufuor said in his opening speech: “The clock is ticking… We need to be pragmatic and move beyond rhetoric to make progress….” That’s where we are! There are two main objectives of the Accra talks:

1. Talks on long term cooperation, which is to include enhanced vision on the provision of financial support and investment, on mitigation of climate change and adaptation…….Technical talks, more like it! The world must accept that, small or big countries, we face the effects of climate change evenly.
2. Talks under Kyoto protocol, where the ad-hoc working groups will analyse new and effective means by which the rich industrialised countries could reach their emission reduction targets. Ad-hoc sounds more like crisis talks.

Sounds complicated, but, the Accra Climate Change talk is a simple serious matter. By day two on Friday, technical papers from different countries on possible means to reach emission reduction targets had been analysed; and policy approaches to reducing emission from deforestation in developing countries had also been discussed. The Climate Action Network group will by the end of Monday, August 25, try to reach an agreement on emissions and country specific plans to reduce emissions. Meanwhile, the message is that, Climate Change is real and it’s nearer than you think. Accra is talking, at least till Wednesday when we’ll see if a compromise could be worked out before the talks move to Copenhagen later in 2009. Credit: Stephen Anti, from the Conference grounds, Accra International Conference Centre