Nathan Thanki

Youth is wasted on the young (?)

Nathan Thanki December 2, 2011 0 Comments

by Nathan Thanki Let me preface everything that follows by saying that I honest to god appreciate the official Youth constituency (YOUNGO) just for existing. I am so glad that these people (you!) are here. If nothing else we are all on the same side (yes, there are sides) and I recognize the need for a loud, unified voice. I like the set up a lot; the horizontal, decentralized organization of...

worried about the next COP already…

Nathan Thanki November 29, 2011 0 Comments

-Nathan Thanki It was just announced in the AWG-LCA (Ad-hoc working group for long-term cooperative action) that COP18 is going to be in...wait for it...Qatar! What are the chances of the Emir, Hamad Bin Khalifa al Than, allowing for any loud and large civil society presence? What are the chances that a Qatari COP-Presidency keeps the process open to all? What hopes could we have (and, of course,...

“Money doesn’t talk, it swears”

Nathan Thanki November 26, 2011 0 Comments

On the promise of the Green Climate Fund by Nathan Thanki Under the UNFCCC, expectations that the international community has regarding climate finance are clear. Article 4, paragraph 3 states that developed countries “shall provide new and additional financial resources to meet the agreed full costs incurred by developing country Parties in complying with their obligations,” and that there...

Terms of engagement: the trench war over bio-resources

Nathan Thanki June 23, 2011 0 Comments

~by Nathan Thanki Although not classically what many would immediately think of as being a priority for a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which one might imagine is solely concerned with conservation of cuddly polar bear cubs and lush rainforests, access and benefit sharing (ABS) for genetic resources and their derivatives have their own Nagoya Protocol (NP). So it is worth saying a...

Can we part with conventions?

Nathan Thanki June 8, 2011 1 Comment

by Nathan There’s nothing new under the hot Montreal sun, but it is worth noting anyway. The Intergovernmental Committee on the Nagoya Protocol opened Monday morning, the first meeting on access and benefit sharing since the Protocol was finalised at the COP last October. For a protocol that seems wholly unfinished—Swizz cheese with more holes than cheese as one observer put it, or, as new...