Heat in the Room – Day 4 OWG12

by khristian méndez // Temperature has risen in New York City, both on all of the concrete and glass surfaces of this giant man-made complex, as well as in the negotiation rooms. Everybody can agree that we need to eradicate poverty, have access to food, education and health, but as we descend down the list of goals, the views become more and more heated. Divergence on Biodiversity This morning...

USA v China

by nathan thanki The USA wants to be treated the same as China when it comes to responsibility for tackling climate change. Many environmental NGOs, in the increasingly panicked calls for climate action now, are also prone to saying things like "well of course the emerged economies of Brazil, India and China must also be obliged to reduce emissions." This plays quite well into...

USA scores own goal by moving the goal posts

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...

The Game of the G77

By Lara Shirley The negotiating strategies employed by the G77+China are very interesting. They are a political entity, and thus have to be highly conscious of the image they project not only to their fellow negotiators but to the wider global community of civil society and media. The G77 negotiators tend to use precise and sophisticated language, often being the only ones to explicitly...

Over-rolled by Giants

~ Jane Nurse The first week of the Intersessionals in Bonn has seen a ferocious fight over the agenda of the ADP and an even more hotheaded haggling over the chair and vice-chair positions of the ADP. India on behalf of the Asia-Pacific group has laid claim to the chair long after the deadline for nominee submissions and after WEOG as well as GruLAC submitted their candidates. In this battle for...