Tuvalu wins first ever “Ray of the Day”

Published December 9, 2009

by iris_author

Today at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP15, in Copenhagen, Tuvalu, a small Polenisian island nation, won the first ever "Ray of the Day" award, which will be given for actions that substantially advance the negotiations. The Ray of the Day is a new award given by the Fossil of the Day Awards that conversely decorate the country with the worst performance for the talks. Canada has already won four Fossil award, when counting the two targeted at industrialized countries; how disappointing!

Anyway, Tuvalu won the Ray of the Day for proposing that the plenary session discuss transparently a legally binding amendment to the Kyoto Protocol: that the treaty require countries to keep temperature rises to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Tuvalu is one of the islands that will be affected first by rising sea levels due to climate change.

The significance of the debate that ensued following Tuvalu's proposal--with small island states (AOSIS) and some poor African countries vs. China, India and Saudi Arabia, among others--is that there is a wider split emerging within the developing countries, which traditionally voted as a block. Another indication of the growing divide is that the AOSIS countries have said their vulnerabilities have not been addressed in the draft of a potential treaty by the BASIC (Brazil, India, South Africa and China).

Posted in: Blogs | Turning Up the Heat