John Lennon Would be Proud

“Make Love not War” is the last thing I would have expected His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah to say. For over 30 years his Excellency has served as Qatar’s minister for portfolios such as Finance, Industry, and Energy, eventally became the head of Qatar Petroleum and is now the Deputy Prime Minister. The host country’s minister of Environment is traditionally appointed COP president.  This year marks a change and H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah is at the helm.

His Excellency’s office has arranged for an “informal dialogue” to allow civil society observers a chance to engage with him.  Enthroned on a dais with a staff member on one side, and the lead Qatari negotiator on the other, His Excellency is either expertly – or completely ineptly – handling questions from observers.  It is unnerving that I cannot entirely decide which it is. 

When a Palestinian woman challenges him for stating that agriculture is not an issue because there are no farmers in the Middle East, he immediately reverses his statement, boldly asserts that Palestinians are the “most famous farmers in the world,” and manages to take a parting shot at ethanol producers for using land that could have been used for food (ahem, who could also be competitors for Qatari gas) -- all in one smooth stream-of-consciousness loop.

An Indigenous man from the Amazon asks him to provide greater support and visibility for Indigenous Peoples in the negotiating process.  “All Qtaris are indigenous peoples so we understand your oppression” he claims, and warmly gives his full support for all Indigenous concerns without the offer of either a single Qatari Riyal or a concrete action in the negotiations. 

A youth delegate’s hand shoots up. She asks him how he is going to speed up negotiations.   Time is running out.  Youth don’t want to inherit the earth they are being left.  He sits back, relaxes and regales us with memories from his student days in Michigan during the 1970s.  “Make Love not War”, he urges all of us, and then sighs and adds reflectively, “ah yes, I was a youth once too, and the youth, they are always wanting change……”.

The UNFCCC secretariat works throughout the year to provide support to the 195 Parties (ie. countries included in the convention) involved in the negotiations, but only the Parties can agree to a deal.  The central job of the COP President is to facilitate these negotiations.  Near the end of the dialogue an environmental NGO representative asks straight out, “what strategies do you have for facilitating the final negotiation?”

His Excellency’s answer is unaccustomly direct.  “Yes, the ministers must be managed.  We will have some roundtables, we will exclude the press, and I will tell them that they need to get along.”

While I agree that it is high time for some cooperation in the climate arena, I’m not entirely sure how successful His Excellency's admonition will be at 3 am in a room full of negotiators faced with unfinished texts haunted by the spectres of two decades of disagreement and mistrust about development, economic interests, and colonialism.  Then again, he has survived Qatari politics for over 30 years and its not like anyone else has come up with any better suggestions.  And really, all he is saying, is give peace a chance.

Legacy

“I dug my keys

into the side

of his pretty little souped up

4 wheel drive

and carved my name

into his legacy”

So croons Carrie Underwood as she describes her revenge on her boyfriend after discovering him cheating on her with a “bleached blonde” who gets drunk after “only one whiskey”.  The delegate from Angola seated beside me is bopping away in time to the music, and through the windows of the VIP luxury mini-bus – complete with white leather seats and cream satin accordian blinds – I see groups of men playing cricket in an abandoned patch of dirt.  The last time I heard this song I was perched on a tractor in Ontario but here I am, it’s Friday morning in Doha, and the Qatari weekend has begun.

COP systematically moves through the continents and each year is held in a different country.  Last year it was in Africa. This year it is Asia’s turn and Qatar is hosting with a vengeance.   In a startling departure from UNFCCC tradition, everything is organized.  Meeting rooms have enough chairs and neither delegates nor observers have found themselves seated on the floor.  Instead, the rooms echo, and only a smattering of the vast technological  resources at hand are being used. Seated in the informal consultation of SBI 37 agenda item 13 (c) I count 19 flat screen televisions – each roughly 2 x 3 feet – carefully positioned around the room.  Overhead metal beams hold two dozen massive adjustable spotlights.  None of this is in use.  Instead, across the room the delegates of China, India, Egypt, Argentina, Indonesia, and several others are in a “huddle” with their microphones turned off.  Their voices are swallowed by the grey plush carpet covering the high-school gymnasium sized room.

Qatar is in a frenzy of growth.  During a tea break at the oppulent Diplomatic Club – one among dozens of utterly indistinquishable luxury hotel venues splayed across the city – I wander outside and see 13 cranes finishing a spread of elaborate highrises on the artificial island, “the Pearl” recently built in the Doha harbour.  Luxury, grandeur, and consumption are the bywords of this place.  In Durban I had to supply my own toilet paper.  In Doha the bathroom of my “budget” hotel is larger than my old living room and there are three chandeliers in my bedroom alone.   I ask my Indian taxi-driver if there is anywhere smaller and simpler to stay.  He laughs, “no-no, not possible” he says, “only landmarks here in Doha”.  He pauses for a second, then continues,  “Too much money.  Too much gas”. 

The juxtaposition of the Durban and Doha COPs is striking. While delegates from developing countries continue to argue that development is a crucial issue, their messages feel distanced by the air-conditioned luxury venues we are smoothly ushered in and out of.  There is no opportunity for any upsets.  Security personal are discreet, meetings rooms well organized, venues comfortable and spacious.   For the first time in my (admitedly short) COP-life, there is not an alternative people’s forum of any kind.   There has been very little angst in the leadup to this COP – most people did not even know it was happening – and yet, maybe this is exactly what makes this a dangerous COP.  If we allow outselves the luxury of forgetting what is at stake, what exactly is the legacy that will be left? 

Carrie Underwood’s cheating partner not withstanding, I expect that few of us would be satisfied with a legacy consisting of nothing more than a souped up 4 wheel drive. Of course, if the parking lots of Doha’s deluxe shopping centres are any indication, perhaps I am wrong.