NEWS FLASH
Negotiations Heating Up in Durban: Any Major Annoucements Coming? | People are starting to speculate in Durban. The U.S. pushed up its press conference from 2:30 to 12:30 today, and Brazil and the EU canceled their press conferences this afternoon. Onlookers are wondering if any big announcements are coming.
“This leads me to believe there are serious negotiations happening behind closed doors,” said Andrew Light, an international climate expert with the Center for American Progress.
“They are hard at work right now,” said Christina Figueres, Chief UN Diplomat for the UNFCCC, talking to a crowd of attendees gathered around her to ask how the negotiations are progressing.
The last two days of COP climate conferences are a flurry of activity, with diplomats spending long days and nights hashing out possible agreements after weeks of negotiations.
There’s plenty of speculation in the press too. It’s being reported in places that the U.S. is blocking binding agreements and pushing for an agreement beyond 2020. Actually, the proposal for a process that wouldn’t include a binding commitment beyond 2020 was proposed by Europe, not the U.S., and the Americans say they “support that” roadmap for some kind of solution.
“It is completely off base to suggest the U.S. is proposing it will delay action to 2020,” Stern explained in a press conference today.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
All due respect intended, but there ain’t nothing meaningful coming out of Durban. Pleadges for a fund for adaptation … seen it. Some tech transfer commitments … been there. Some MRV commitments from China … sure. A binding emission reduction agreement, NO CHANCE. They need to change the dialogue. Start penalizing (imposing tariffs) on countries (including the U.S. and China) that don’t put a price a carbon. Nothing else matters. Kyoto is dead.
One big problem over here in Europe is that the news is filled with stuff on the Euro-crisis to the point where Durban is edged out.
This of course suites the incumbent pair in No 10 and No 11, insincerity and duplicity respectively where AGW is concerned as the current stand on tar-sands oil demonstrates.
Chile’s Jorge Montt Glacier shrinks half a mile in a year
The Jorge Montt Glacier in Chile is shrinking at a rate of more than half a mile a year, according to researchers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8943350/Chiles-Jorge-Montt-Glacier-shrinks-half-a-mile-in-a-year.html
Stunning!
The Rupture is at hand!
World climate talks on brink of disaster http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/09/9319100-world-climate-talks-on-brink-of-disaster