By Lauren Nutter
Exhaustion is the first word that comes to mind personally. But in all seriousness, now fully in the second week of negotiations, I find myself asking where are we at? I find myself in a bizarre and somewhat conflicted state. On one hand the 200 page text we started with here in Bangkok has been consolidated, and countries are being quite frank about outlining their deal breakers and what they need domestically to make this happen… all seem to be good signals right?
And yet in my exhaustion I can not tell is that enough to allow myself to celebrate or grasp as a glimmer of hope? We are still moving painfully slowly, and although there are fewer pages there are still probably as many controversial topics. And even more frustratingly I find myself being pulled back once again to the US domestic scene where it feels the fate is hanging at the moment… will we get numbers and a law from Congress that will allow us to stop holding up progress in these negotiations?
I’m not sure on any of these points. The best I can say is stay tuned and in the mean time here are some more anecdotes and comments from Friday’s stocktaking session in the Long-term Cooperative Action track (aka where shit has to get done for a global climate deal in Copenhagen).
AOSIS- a political decision is not enough in Copenhagen; we need a legal implementation that will bring us to 2012 and beyond.
Mauritius- referring to the recent natural disasters “This is not a wake-up call; this is a final call”
Switzerland on behalf of the Environmental Integrity Group- held up a sign “Yes we can” and expressed concern that we need to pick up the pace of the negotiations.
Saudi Arabia- followed by holding up a sign “Yes, if fair and equitable”.