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The thing that I came with was Paul Revere.
I think that when Paul Revere rode out and said:
"The British are coming,"
that was a tipping point in history
that was probably recognised only in terms of its political significance
10 or 50 or... you know, or much, much later.
And I wouldn't be so cheeky as to compare Cancun
to the beginning of American independence,
but I do think that Cancun was very significant in the same way
as a political turning point.
Now, why would I say that?
I say that because if I look back at Cancun,
with the same positive view that Chris Huhne just gave you
but with a slightly different perspective,
I see Cancun as being a gold mine
in terms of advancing the green growth agenda in sensible ways.
Now, why would I say that?
I would say that because there's an enormous amount in the Cancun
about opportunities for green growth.
There is sensible language about the monitoring
of target implementation.
There are good things about low-carbon growth strategies,
which means really integrating climate change in a broader sense.
There's the prospect of new market mechanisms,
although they're not explained in detail, but the prospect is there.
There's a new financial instrument which has been created,
or is going to be created,
which will lean very heavily on private-sector input,
which to many of you makes absolute sense.
There's an opportunity to drive clean technology into markets
in new ways and I hope in very sensible ways.
And, very importantly, there are provisions
to police and enforce a new regime
without talking about legally binding at an international level,
without having to post arrest warrants
for prime ministers at airports,
but about much more practical ways
in which you can actually make a climate change regime effective.
And there is lots of language about rules and tools.
So, in that sense, it's an absolute gold mine
for practical implementation.
At the same time I think that Cancun is a fork in the road,
and the question is, which direction do we take from here on?
Do we really take that green growth path
or do we take a different one?
And that, I think, depends a lot on the type of meaning,
the type of content that we give to the process from here on.
Do we make it a process that focuses or continues to focus
primarily on political demands that we make on developing countries?
Does it focus on the symbolism, on the politics,
or does it focus on the substance?
Does it get into taking that gold mine and turning Cancun
into a functioning and workable climate change regime
that is about green growth rather than about politics and rhetoric?
And that takes us to another fork in the road.
I think, sir, you pointed to that fork in the road
a little bit earlier.
There's a lot of talk in the media, amongst all of us,
about the green race,
the green growth agenda.
And I think another fork in the road we're confronted with
is the fork between the green race and the black race.
Do we really make Cancun real,
do we mine that gold mine and turn this into an implementation agenda?
Or are we, as a result of short-term thinking
that relates to the economic crisis,
driven rather to take a fork in a different direction
and follow the black race,
the black race which relates to cheap coal,
to tar sands and to cheap conventional sources of energy,
which fits much better with short-term thinking?
And my sense is very strongly
that if we can turn Cancun into an implementation agenda
that leads us towards the green race,
we will have seized an opportunity.
And the threat that we're confronted with
is that we don't seize that opportunity,
that we continue to focus on the politics
and that we end up with the black race
rather than with the green race.
Now, whether we take the junction to the left or to the right,
the green junction or the black junction,
I think depends a lot on the business sense
with which we take our Cancun agenda over the coming weeks.
So although the significance of Paul Revere
was recognised decades later
than when he actually rode out and said, "The British are coming,"
I hope we will see the significance of Cancun a lot more quickly,
and I hope that it'll be green significance
rather than black significance.
Thank you.
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