This December, 2009 in Copenhagen, we saw that largest meeting of world leaders outside of New York in history, and they were talking about climate change. This fact alone is a significant achievement. It significant, but unsatisfactory considering the amount of action required to adequately address the climate crisis. It was easy to get caught up in the details of ... Read More »
Monthly Archives: December 2009
A Weak Deal Has Been “Taken Note Of”
I think we have just seen the death of multilateralism. I am really upset right now, both because my computer got stolen last night at a viewing “party”, and that we have no strong agreement. It was not a good day! The U.N. System is based on respect of state-sovereignty, cooperation and, when possible, consensus. All of that was seemingly ... Read More »
Leaders Converge: Get Closer to a Deal, but not “THE” Deal
Today only 300 individuals from NGOs were allowed in the Bella Centre. These individuals are the only ones allowed in over the next two days, other than Media and individuals on party delegations. It’s a very different experience now that I am excluded from the venue. I tried to stay on top of the negotiations via live feed from the ... Read More »
Leaders Converge in the Final Hours: Get Closer to a Deal
Today only 300 individuals from NGOs were allowed in the Bella Centre. These individuals are the only ones allowed in over the next two days, other than Media and individuals on party delegations. It’s a very different experience now that I am excluded from the venue. I tried to stay on top of the negotiations via live feed from the ... Read More »
Last Day of Broad NGO Imput; Negotiations Stalled; Draft Text Reviewed
Here are a few of the gems from the last plenary session, before it was suspended. The bureaucratic negotiations are supposed to be over, and have passed along text to ministers “The President is consulting on how to go forward with the process of consultations” “We are like the Titanic, and someone notices we are heading towards the iceberg, but ... Read More »
Video on Day 15
Check out this video on Day 15 of COP15 Read More »
Update on Status as of Wednesday Morning, Copenhagen Time
Just a brief update. Was here until 1am last night when I gave up on the AWG-LCA; turns out the negotiations did eventually start up again and negotiators went at it until about 6am. Ministers and Heads of State start negotiating today, but unfortunately the civil-servants didn’t do much to get the text ready for their approval…there is still an ... Read More »
Leaked Government Plan Shows No Intention of Meeting Target?
On December 14, 2009 CBC News reported on a leaked proposal from Environment Minister Prentice to cabinet outlining a new climate change plan in which it will be virtually impossible for Canada to reach its targets of 20% below 2006 levels by 2020. According to the Climate Action Network Canada, members of which reviewed the leaked document, the proposal aims ... Read More »
Canada is Behind U.S. Not With It: Ranks 2nd last for Climate Policy, No Real Program
Canada Failing Behind PowerUp Canada and Germanwatch/Climate Action Network have released report that dovetail nicely to tell a disturbing story about Canada. Canada claims that it is doing as much or more than the U.S., and our official policy seems to be to “follow the U.S.”. The PowerUp report talks about the different between U.S and Canadian policy, showing the Canadian policy ... Read More »
Long Lines Inevitable – Large Leaps Required
Today I waited for about an hour to enter the Bella Centre, standing in line with two delegates from Iraq. They explained that it is difficult for the Iraqi government to participate in these negotiations, because they are obviously preoccupied with a war at home. If we all put our interest in tackling this challenge recognizing it is the greatest ... Read More »