Intersessionals

What was it like being an observer for one day at the UN?

Angela Valenzuela October 28, 2015 0 Comments

by Angela Valenzuela. What was it like being an observer for a day in the last preparatory meeting for Paris COP21? Here there is a poem that I wrote after the last ADP session (Ad-hoc working group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action): The conviction for life and the breeze of change brought me to Bonn, to observe how love is lost, in the fast steps of this reunion. Diplomacy is...

The way here and the way forward: negotiating a new climate agreement

Nathan Thanki March 14, 2014 23 Comments

by nathan thanki At the end of an unseasonably warm week in Bonn, the sun set on yet another round of UNFCCC (climate change) negotiations. The session, quieter than the end of year COP (Conference of the Parties) jamboree, has only dealt with one negotiating track—the "ADP." The ADP, or Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (there's a reason we use acronyms), is a...

US submits views on future climate agreement

Nathan Thanki February 17, 2014 1 Comment

by nathan thanki Since the Durban round of UN climate talks in 2011, governments have been struggling towards an eventual global agreement to address climate change (ideally, some say they're just negotiating the establishment of more markets). The negotiation process, named the "ADP" (the D stands for Durban) is mandated to conclude in Paris in December 2015 with some kind of outcome. The exact...

USA scores own goal by moving the goal posts

Nathan Thanki August 8, 2012 1 Comment

by nathan thanki There was quite a stink created this week when US Special Envoy for Climate Change (the big-shot who shows up late to the UN climate talks and gets interrupted by his constituents for not truly speaking for them) made a "remark" to his old College, Dartmouth. There was widespread condemnation of the apparent u-turn on US climate policy, which had previously agreed...

Has US given up on keeping warming below 2 degrees?

Nathan Thanki August 7, 2012 0 Comments

As we are now only 3 weeks away from crucial climate change negotiations in Bangkok (which will set the stage for this years 18th Conference of the Parties, in Doha), US Special Envoy on climate change - Todd Stern - has dropped a bit of a bomb during a speech at Dartmouth. Rather than stick to what the science demands, and limit global warming to 2 degrees celcius, Mr Stern is advocating for a...