*[Enwl-eng] Zoom climate diplomacy. ‘Technology doesn’t help build trust’ - Климатическая дипломатия через Zoom: «Технологии не помогают укрепить доверие»

[ENWL]

Очень интересная статья про то, как сейчас работает климатическая дипломатия.

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https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/01/zoom-climate-diplomacy-technology-
doesnt-help-build-trust/

Zoom climate diplomacy: ‘Technology doesn’t help build trust’

Published on 01/04/2020, 9:34am

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed climate diplomacy online, greening
much of UN Climate Change’s operations but virtual meeting bring their
own challenges

The meeting of the Adaptation Committee took place online earlier this
month. (Photo: Youtube)

By Chloé Farand

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the world, the climate
diplomacy that was so critical to leverage governments into
strengthening their climate plans this year is moving online.

And with it, the tough diplomatic and political ask expected ahead of a
critical climate summit in Glasgow, or Cop26, in November has also
become a technological challenge.

“Some of us might be cut off or the sound might not work very well so we
will need to adjust to that. As the Adaptation Committee, we can do it
very well,” smiled Olga Pilifosova, manager of the Adaptation programme
at UN Climate Change secretariat, from an online Zoom meeting.

Adaptation to the impacts of climate change – such as heatwaves, floods,
and droughts – is part of a two-pronged UN strategy alongside
mitigation, focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The coronavirus which as of Tuesday killed more than 36,500 people
worldwide has forced UN Climate Change to find new, greener, ways of
working, pushing climate diplomacy into the digital space.

The Cop26 presidency team is holding “virtual trips” and international
meetings through video and phone conferences.

UN Climate Change announced it won’t hold any physical meetings until
the end of April and although a number of meetings have been postponed,
smaller sessions have moved online. It’s too early to say whether the
pandemic will affect Cop26, and UN Climate Change is set to decide on
Wednesday evening about a mid-year session due in Bonn in June.

As Zoom diplomacy takes hold, the informal spaces for negotiators to
meet at the coffee machine or for a corridor chat have been replaced
with a much more streamlined process online.

While the cancellation of all carbon-intensive air travel is a positive
side effect of the crisis for the international climate community,
adapting to virtual meeting brings its own challenges.

For many developing countries, where fibre-optic cables are not
available and bandwidth is low, connectivity, and therefore
participation, has proved difficult at times.

Coronavirus slows developing nations’ plans to step up climate action in
2020

“The problem is that in some countries, internet is still an expensive
luxury,” Alpha Kaloga, a climate negotiator from Guinea, told Climate
Home News.

But delay to climate action is not an option. “Given the urgency of the
climate crisis, we want and need the work to get done, but we want it to
be inclusive,” Kaloga added.

During a virtual meeting of the Warsaw International Mechanism – the
international framework which addresses climate impacts which emissions
cuts and adaptation efforts cannot prevent – one of two African
representatives dialling in from Sudan was unable to participate because
of low bandwidth.

UN Climate Change is working to ensure everyone can participate to
online meetings.

In 2018, UN Climate Change spent $12 million on travel for participants
and staff. Now, its travel team is offering to book delegates with
connectivity issues hotel rooms close to their homes, to ensure they can
still participate in online sessions.

Where possible, other UN regional offices could also be put at
delegates’ disposal dependent on domestic travel restrictions.

And a narrow two-hour window in the middle of day Central European Time
has been identified to accommodate the greatest time zone span. It is
daytime in Europe and Africa, evening in Asia, early morning in the
Americas, but the middle of the night in the Pacific.

Japan sticks to 2030 climate goals, accused of a ‘disappointing’ lack of
ambition

While virtual meetings are a necessary short-term fix, in the longer-
term poorer nations will need additional technological capacity.

Tenzin Wangmo, of Bhutan and the lead negotiator for a group of Least
Developed Countries (LDC), told CHN that even in small meetings, LDC
negotiators often had to turn off the video function to ensure better
connection.

“Infrastructure is going to be a challenge for the LDC group.
Definitely, it’s going to impact the substance of the discussions,” she
said, adding that many LDC countries had just started to work on their
new climate plans and much of that work was now halted.

“I don’t think having a meeting using technology can help build trust
between each other,” she added.

Speaking to CHN, Carlos Fuller, of Belize and lead negotiator of the
Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), said it was difficult to
imagine online meetings extending to the whole climate diplomacy process
and to the climate talks which bring together nearly 200 countries.

“We [Aosis] interact well because it’s a smaller group and we know each
other. But I still want to see how a global meeting is going to work on
a Zoom platform,” Fuller said. Wangmo agreed: “I don’t think we can
bring all-party negotiations online. I think that would impact
participation.”

Part of the reason is that for an online meeting “to be successful, it
is to be short,” Fuller added, finding a silver lining in the need for
some efficiency improvement.

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But efficiency does not necessarily mean the same thing for everyone.
“You end up addressing the most important issues for the most important
players,” one developing nation diplomat warned.

Virtual meetings also remove the human contact, personal ties and
spontaneity in discussions that have long been the hallmark of
diplomatic deal-making. Popular online meeting platforms also don’t
support instant translations and negotiators can no longer rely on body
language.

“Negotiations are like role play and you really need to be face to face
to do that,” one diplomat told CHN. “You get a feeling if there is
tension in the room, how people react to propositions and it’s easier to
test ideas”.

This bargaining aspect of diplomacy has seen negotiators long favour
closed doors meetings to broker deals and compromise. Online
conversations are much easily recorded, which may allow more
transparency but does not suit everyone’s negotiating strategy.

“That changes the type of conversations that can take place,” the
diplomat added.

Many agree UN Climate Change processes would benefit from more efficient
processes, more virtual meetings and less international travel. “This is
forcing us to think about how we operate,” one veteran negotiator told
CHN, “but it is not going to create the dynamic that we need” before
Cop26.

“And a crisis coping-mechanism is not necessarily the way we want to
adapt in the long term”.


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Best regards,
Tatiana Shauro


Еженедельный Дайджест Новостей об изменении климата


Network Development and Outreach Department 
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From: Tatiana Shauro 
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2020 3:01 PM
Subject: Климатическая дипломатия через Zoom: «Технологии не помогают укрепить доверие»



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