We need a fresh look at it. Some of the 350.org team have been in Poland working to bring news of the politics to the world, and news of the world to the politics. What we are seeing is that, while everyone agrees that the science of climate change is moving fast, everyone also agrees that the UN process isn’t.
One of the big reasons for this time lag between science and policy is the process of what is actually a fantastic organization – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. They’re fantastic because they create massive compilations of all climate science and issue reports that can help inform policymakers. They’re a problem because that process takes a lot of time.
I want to keep writing about this, including how heads of state can help move things forward by calling for an emergency session of the IPCC in 2009, but really I should point you to this oped in the Guardian, by Jonathon Porritt, which was just printed.
The options for making the UN negotiations next year in Copenhagen work well are getting slimmer, but Porritt is suggesting a smart way forward.