Took place from to 13 to 25 November 2001
Overshadowed by the contested (i.e. stolen) US election and the prospect of President Bush.
Ended in chaos and had to be formally ‘finished off’ the following year in Bonn.
Protesters were able to storm the stage and say “wtaf”, because this was pre-911.
Major stunt was sandbags to demonstrate sea level rise.
As wikipedia says
The discussions evolved rapidly into a high-level negotiation over the major political issues. These included major controversy over the United States’ proposal to allow credit for carbon “sinks” in forests and agricultural lands that would satisfy a major proportion of the U.S. emissions reductions in this way; disagreements over consequences for non-compliance by countries that did not meet their emission reduction targets; and difficulties in resolving how developing countries could obtain financial assistance to deal with adverse effects of climate change and meet their obligations to plan for measuring and possibly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the final hours of COP 6, despite some compromises agreed between the United States and some EU countries, notably the United Kingdom, the EU countries as a whole, led by Denmark and Germany, rejected the compromise positions, and the talks in The Hague collapsed. Jan Pronk, the President of COP 6, suspended COP-6 without agreement, with the expectation that negotiations would later resume.[3] It was later announced that the COP 6 meetings (termed “COP 6 bis”) would be resumed in Bonn, Germany, in the second half of July.
The ENB summary:
Australia’s position, action:
Aussies hadn’t yet formally said “nope” to Kyoto (Robert Hill signed it in April 1998, but Howard hadn’t yet publicly nixxed ratification – that would happen in June 2002).
I think I have a ‘Habitat’ (ACF) article about this.
I also know people [activists] who were there and should interview them at some point.
Business is scared the Europeans will get their way at The Hague, and that Australia won’t get the sinks or other concessions that would allow it to go on polluting as long as it planted trees or took other measures.
Australian industry has a big team at The Hague: on the government delegation will be John Eyles from the Australian Greenhouse Industry Network, and Maria Robertson from Comalco will be on the New Zealand delegation. And there are observers from the BCA, Rio Tinto, ICF Kaiser, Origin Energy, ACL, Woodside Energy, the Australian Gas Association, the Aluminium Council, BHP, Hancock NRG, the ACCI and others.
Clennell, A. 2000. Taking Care Of Business. Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November, p.15.
marchudson.net 