Fossil of the Day

Cross-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here – dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement By: Courtney Price

The latest UN Conference on Climate Change is only two days old, but Canada, the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia have already managed to shame themselves by being awarded a ‘Fossil of the Day’ for having the most obstructive and damaging positions in the international negotiations so far.

Loud booing echoed in the exhibition hall as a crowd gathered to show its disapproval for the countries that are perceived as doing the least to stop climate change.

Youth delegates from the ‘winning’ countries stood in front of a back drop of flames and behind blocks of coal and explained their reasons for accepting the award.

First to win the top prize on the opening day was Saudi Arabia for stating that “unintended consequences of mitigation should be compensated for as well as the intended ones.” This means that they are expecting to be reimbursed for the oil that they won’t be able to extract when we stop relying on fossil fuels.

The United States came in a close second because they are the only country that has not ratified Kyoto.

Canada came in third behind the United States because of their late submission to the Ad Hoc Working Group and for consistently missing their Kyoto targets.

Canada and the United States have achieved the unenviable position of having been twice singled out for their uncooperative policies and awarded a Fossil by the international youth attending the conference.

But today’s big winner was Japan, who managed to pull off an upset when it swept all three awards during the ceremony. Japan’s position on moving outside the Kyoto talks, where binding emissions targets do not apply, secured its victory. However they had to share the bronze medal with Canada and the United States in a three-way tie for third place. The three countries’ lack of movement on technology transfer rounded off the nominations.

The Climate Action Network, a body that represents the environmental NGO community nominates the countries based on their daily performances.

With its consistent third place standing, Canada seems to be stuck in the Bronze Age. No wonder the tag of ‘fossil’ applies so readily.