CHAPTER 03: A Ride on a Dismantled Train
Chapter three a critical analysis on the failure to address issues of the world are discussed. The journey to sustainability has been disrupted because the intergovernmental system has dismantled the train taking us towards that destination. Today we have climate change, poverty eradication, economic prosperity and social wellbeing discussed separately. So we may as well be prepared to repeatedly negotiate for new destinations and 'in-between stops' for the next many years and decades to come.

(from pg 61)..... "Eighteen years ago I boarded a train at the 'Palais des Nations' in Geneva which announced that it was travelling towards the destination of sustainability. A handful of us from the independent sectors of different continents were invited to join this train ride organised by the United Nations. Within the first few minutes of the ride, it was obvious to some of us that the train was not taking us on a journey we envisaged. We realised that we were on the wrong track and were worried about losing sight of the destination as well. Since then many of us continued to demand that this train needs to be placed on the correct track, and that we should proceed towards sustainability through a clear path to avoid being stranded. Today, we are dangerously stranded with possibilities of no return."


(from pg 62) ... I see the whole United Nations effort on sustainability as a disjointed train ride; it like dismantling the train’s engine and compartments and getting the different units to run separately on different tracks, to find sustainability. While the engine is parked on one track, compartments seem to be running on different tracks and at different speeds with the railway staff trying to steer as many journeys as possible towards sustainability. This has left us passengers stranded not knowing which path leads to sustainability or which train takes us on that journey. The stations too have changed and different roadmaps drawn up since. We now have to figure out which map provides better direction; which one would direct us to the correct station to board the correct train towards sustainability. Amidst all the confusion, the train company has survived and continues to profit by having multiple maps, stations, trains, and destination points directed towards sustainability. 

(from pg 64) .... "The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was one of those compartments founded at the UNCED in 1992, and therefore became the mandated organization to save humanity from climate change. For the past fifteen years the UNFCCC have spent billions of dollars, burned thousands of tons of fossil fuel in the process of negotiations, and created nightmares in the minds of billions of people about the destitution facing humans on earth. Meanwhile the overall situation for us, the ordinary people, continues to deteriorate, and a new destination called ‘a liveable environment’ is being proposed. The UNFCCC is lost in a journey without a clear destination, ........"

(from pg 70) ..... "With or without the name of Kyoto, did the Bali Road Map at COP13 climate talks provide UNFCCC adequate ground to succeed in the negotiations? The current international reactions do not suggest so. Developing countries express their strong opposition to proposals by developed countries to renegotiate the UNFCCC. They claim that such proposals are aimed at generating new commitments for developing countries and also to diminish the commitments of developed countries. " 



(from pg 74) ..... "With no inclusive dialogue to engage all people and stakeholders of the world, a deal between the affluent and powerful cannot be any more effective than the previous UN deals. Ironically, after the earth summit in 1992 the Secretary General of the UNCED, Mr. Maurice Strong, organised the ‘Earth Council’ as an independent international organization to carry forward the mission entrusted upon the UN agencies to implement the findings of the Earth Summit. While many talented people join the UN with great expectations of making a difference through the powers bestowed in those jobs and positions, many senior bureaucrats retire or leave the institution to create or join independent organizations and to force the same issues. A friend, who recently left a UN agency based in France and joined a non-governmental organization in the USA sent me an email saying “now we can work together freely on those world issues and have great dialogue like in the good old days.” He is now looking for a different deal with the independent people’s movements and not between agencies of the UN and multinational companies he was brokering deals for years. ....."


(from pg 74) ..... "We need to get the train back on track towards sustainability. The Southern country compartments are firmly stationed, and demand that the negotiations should consider a route through poverty eradication and climate justice. But, the developed countries do not want to pay anything extra and have held back their due commitments wishing to extend their profits of the current world order. It is a stalemate, and no journey seems possible. The UNO may well need to rethink their role and responsibilities before the climate negotiations can agree upon sustainability as the logical destination that was found many decades ago. With this destination in mind, getting the train back together to run on a single track may be more important than finding new engines, placing new tracks, setting up new stations and designing new roadmaps. Once the destination is clear, the train is assembled, and the tracks are laid on the mapped pathway, getting to climate sustainability will be better understood. Bon Voyage!  ..."


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