In Bonn, the birds were coming back

BONN, Germany – “Birds are back,” Vee told me. I strained to listen. There was a whistling that seemed to pierce the endless gray of winter.

We were in Bonn at the United Nations campus. It was my sixth day in Germany and in February ice was still melting and light rain showered every now and then. I was with 14 other journalists from around the world. Vee was one of the program coordinators from Goethe Institut who organized the information tour.

Before going to Bonn, we were in Berlin listening to lectures on climate, peace, and security in offices of government agencies and think tanks.

On the grounds of the UN Campus beside the Rhine, it dawned on me that in Berlin and in Bonn I’ve only seen crows and pigeons. What we heard that Friday afternoon were the songbirds that arrived early back in Europe. At home, where I often see a yellow-vented bulbul perched on a tree by the sliding door, I never thought about not hearing birds.

As the planet warms, migratory birds are being forced to arrive earlier in breeding grounds even when it is still winter. Development and rapid urbanization has caused habitat loss and fragmentation for birds.

Will we adapt?

Days before in Berlin, we met Kamal Amakrane, the climate envoy of the president of the UN General Assembly. He wore a blazer and a turtleneck, went around the room and asked us which country we came from.

Amakrane sought to inspire without ignoring the bureaucracy of the international climate regime that’s keeping the world from more ambitious action. “A lot of people have put a lot of hearts into this,” Amakrane said. “But I cannot deny you the realities.” Some of my colleagues would say later on that the session with him was one of their favorites throughout the tour.

He emphasized that while the climate crisis is global, adaptation is “very much local.”

“We will all be impacted by climate change, but we will feel it differently. Some may be able to adapt and some will have strong difficulties.”

This is a basic truth in climate and disaster. But adaptation requires funds and the technical expertise. Funds come as either grants or loans. The whole debacle on finance is especially on display at the annual UN climate summits.

Vulnerable countries would demand more, and polluting countries would push back. It has long been regarded that climate is a development issue. The world settles for a consensus, which Amkrane says is the “minimum common denominator.”

“We have failed frontline communities,” Amakrane said.

Climate is a security issue

It was icy cold when I arrived in Berlin. A few days before, the capital’s airport was shut down because of snow and freezing rain. I was not used to negative temperatures and found great relief in reliable heating systems of establishments.

Later I would learn that heating is a contested issue as the German federal government mandated that newly installed heating systems should be at least 65% renewable. The coalition government recently agreed to scrap this and allow oil and gas heating systems.

The journalists stayed in Werderscher Markt, a public square in the heart of Berlin where the foreign federal office and other embassies are located.

Our arrival in Germany came months before the election of a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Germany is campaigning for this seat. We were told, in many ways, that Germany wants to mainstream the climate crisis as a matter of international security.

A report commissioned by G7 countries identified threats exacerbated by climate change:

1. Local resource competition
2. Livelihood insecurity and migration
3. Extreme weather events and disasters
4. Volatile food prices and provision
5. Transboundary water management
6. Sea-level rise and coastal degradation
7. Unintended effects of climate policies

“Where institutions and governments are unable to manage the stress or absorb the shocks of a changing climate, the risks to the stability of states and societies will increase,” the report read.

Beethoven and the Rhine

The journalists I was with mostly came from developing countries, from places vulnerable to sea level rise such as Fiji, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands.

Some reporters asked about the relation of certain institutions’ programs to their country. Some asked if Germany plans to return to nuclear in the near future. (The answer we were told, for now, is no.)

Some asked about Europe’s place – and Germany’s – in the international climate regime as the United States abandons the global climate effort. I asked Amakrane if he thinks the UNFCCC process has become too bureaucratic for progress to be urgently felt on the frontlines.

My takeaway is that the current global order cannot accommodate the urgency and ambition needed in the fight against climate change. I did not find this surprising.

As a break from all the lectures and by the end of the week, we visited the house where Beethoven was born. The guide sampled Scene by the Brook and drew our attention to the the bird calls that Beethoven mimicked. That of a nightingale, a quail, and a cuckoo.

On our last night, we shared a farewell dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Rhine. We all talked about some of the things we learned as journalists.

What I did not say then I will write here.

I learned that in Germany, train stations do not have gates and you only validate your ticket once. That Deutsche Bahn gets delayed. That in Bonn, small statues of Beethoven are everywhere, in the same manner that Santo Niño figures are scattered in the Philippines. That hearing songbirds in the stillness of February is unexpectedly marvelous and that the silence of birds could be defeaning. – Rappler.com