Day 8 Policy Updates: Coal-land

By Anna Odell and Bohdan Zymka SBSTA closed early Sunday morning (late Saturday night) and SBI closed this morning before the stock-taking plenary. Overall, the G77 remains unified in the face of growing political pressure, particularly on the issues of loss and damage and finance. The G77 has stated that they won’t discuss post 2020 finance until pre 2020 finance has been addressed, and LDCs...

Weekend Policy Updates: All Night Parties

by Nathan Thanki Saturday saw thousands march through the streets of Warsaw towards to Stadium where the negotiations are being held. 600 people arrived on a train from Brussels. The march ended in a rally which included speakers from the Philippines Movement for Climate Justice. Negotiations, meanwhile, continued as contact groups and informals before convening as plenaries late into the night...

DUMPED: Japan’s fling with climate finally ends, three years after giving up custody of lovechild Kyoto

by Anjali Appadurai It was a move that had been expected with dread: on Friday morning Tokyo time, the Japanese government announced its new greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020. The numbers are grim. Japan will cut emissions by 3.8 per cent from its 2005 level by 2020; this translates to an increase of 3.1 per cent from its 1990 levels. The government had been reviewing its international...

SBI Closing Intervention

The following is the intervention given by Katie O'Brien at the Subsidiary Body for Implementation's closing session, written by the Youth NGO's working group on Loss and Damage. Text of the Speech: Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Katie, I am Canadian and speaking for the youth constituency. Despite the large SBI agenda, the inevitability of further warming, and associated impacts, makes loss...

Day 5 Policy Updates: Taking Stock, Talking Lots

by Nathan Thanki The informals continue. Today saw the ADP convene meetings on adaptation and technology which got fairly heated. The big sticking points are the issue of intellectual property rights (IPRs), which has been reintroduced by the G77 but is causing the developed countries much anguish. Yesterday developed countries began referring to IPRs as "the thing which must not be named" in...