The New Nation - Internet Edition

The Bali Conference on Climate Change ended on 14 December on an optimistic note through the adoption of a plan to negotiate a new global warming pact by 2009 after the US delegation said that it would accept a compromise proposal. Bangladesh's participation in the conference, drummed up as being impressive, was in fact, dismal, according to information gathered from some participants.

Three extreme climatic events - two big waves of flood and worst cyclone Sidr that hit Bangladesh in succession within a span of just four months - had put to international focus this nation of 150 million which contributes little to climate change but has become one of its worst victims. A two-dozen plus Bangladesh delegation, however, had little role of its own due to lack of advance planning and absence of teamwork, informed sources told The New Nation.

The United States on the last day of negotiations dropped its opposition to a proposal by the G77, for rich nations to do more for the developing world to fight rising greenhouse emissions, breaking a deadlock between rich and poor nations. "We will go forward and join consensus," Paula Dobriansky, who was heading the U.S. delegation, told the meeting, triggering cheers and applause from many in the audience.

The talks agreed to a roadmap for two-year negotiations on a new climate regime. The planned treaty would take effect at the end of 2012 when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires. The Kyoto Protocol binds 36 industrialised countries to reduce emissions by an average 5 percent below the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The "Bali Roadmap" was approved by consensus among the nearly 190 members of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) after tough negotiations.

The Bangladesh delegation included the secretary, ministry of environment and forests, the director general, one director, and a number of deputy and assistant directors of the department of environment (DOE), representatives of some NGOs, but it carried neither any working paper nor had any distribution of work among its members to attend the many main events and side events that spread over a period of little over two weeks from November 28 to December 14.

Dr CS Karim, Adviser for Environment, is learnt to have asked for the preparation of a country position paper and the holding of some events like press conference by the official delegation at Bali to attract attention of the global community, but it did not materialise because officials who dealt with the conference did not have any preparations for those.

The adviser did want the Bangladesh delegation to function as a composite unit and had asked for the inclusion in it of some NGO representatives. The delegation was thus expanded but it did not function in a coordinated way. Among the participants, officials from the DOE were the specialists with experience of taking part in many such global events. They, however, did not succeed to perform up to the expectation of the adviser. "Probably they thought that like political ministers of the past the adviser might also not ask for much," said one participant, "but when there was the demand for a position paper and holding of exclusive events at Bali, the excuse was paucity of time and unavailability of space and schedule at the conference venue." Unfortunately, the adviser could not attend the event, as his mother was seriously ill.

It is gathered that the European Union delegation caught the Bangladesh delegation by surprise when it on its own asked Bangladesh to take leadership and push forward the climate change adaptation action plan and expressed its readiness to extend bilateral help in this regard. One participant said, the conference highlighted the state of efficiency of the DOE that has been strengthened since the late 1980s. Its three senior-most directors are remaining sidelined for more than a decade. Preparations on the part of the DOE are vital for the successful participation in any such event, because ministers and secretaries change not the officials at the DOE.

At Bali members of the Bangladesh delegation did not have briefing and sharing meetings to decide which events to cover and by whom. Delegations of many countries had daily meetings in the morning to take stock of developments and plan activities for the day. Another shortcoming was the absence of a dedicated negotiator or a team of negotiators to speak for Bangladesh. Even a large country like India has a small team of specialist negotiators who are called back from their work places to represent the country during such conferences. One participant said, overall Bangladesh's performance was not bad as its representatives were elected to four different committees, but the delegation did not function as a team to have an impact and failed to gather adequate information for future activities. The experience of Bali hopefully would not repeat.