Frustration mounts as time runs out at climate talks 

Posted: October 21, 2015 by oldbrew in climate, Politics, Uncertainty

Warming up for climate negotiations ? [image credit: businessnewsdaily.com]

Warming up for climate negotiations ?
[image credit: businessnewsdaily.com]


That’s the headline of this Yahoo News report. Looks like another marathon arm-wrestle when the Paris climate crowd jet in for their annual jamboree in a few weeks’ time.

Frustration ran high Wednesday at the snail’s pace of talks for a climate rescue pact, with three days left for diplomats to craft a blueprint for a year-end UN summit. With an eye firmly on the clock, diplomats in Bonn despaired at the mountain of work they face after an acrimonious start on Monday cost them more than a day of negotiating time.

“I am, to be honest, very concerned,” said climate envoy Laurence Tubiana of France, which will host a November 30-December 11 UN summit tasked with inking a 195-nation pact to rein in global warming. “I don’t think this way of working is going to bring us where we need to be by the end of the week and to stand a chance of success in Paris.”


The Bonn meeting is tasked with forging a workable blueprint for ministers and heads of state to grind down into a global agreement meant to crown years of climate negotiations. It would be the first accord committing all the world’s nations, rich and poor, in the same arena for climate action.

The talks got off to a false start Monday when developing countries accused rich ones of “apartheid” tactics, and claimed their core demands had been excised from the blueprint. An overnight sprint to reintroduce omitted passages saw the text swell from 20 pages to 34. The huddle then broke up into smaller text-crafting groups, which reported back on Wednesday.

If ministers were to see the product, “probably many delegates would lose half their salaries immediately,” European Union delegate Artur Runge-Metzger told a stocktaking session.

Full report: Frustration mounts as time runs out at climate talks – Yahoo News UK

Comments
  1. michael hart says:
    October 21, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    “…diplomats in Bonn despaired at the mountain of work they face after an acrimonious start on Monday cost them more than a day of negotiating time.”

    You won’t believe how much pleasure i get from reading that.

    People dedicating their working lives to making the world a worse place for everybody else should certainly suffer for their art.

  2. Roger Clague says:
    October 21, 2015 at 2:32 pm

    Great!
    First thing they do is increase the blueprint from 20 to 34 pages.

  3. oldbrew says:
    October 21, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    It’s job creation on steroids. Pays well too…

    http://climateaudit.org/2015/09/28/shuklas-gold/

  4. catweazle666 says:
    October 21, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Is it really that difficult to decide on which five star resort the 10,000+ members of the climate gang are going to favour with their presence at next year’s luxury piss-up, complete with the annual carbon footprint of a mid-level industrial nation?

    Because that’s the only thing that will get decided.

  5. Graeme No.3 says:
    October 22, 2015 at 7:31 am

    20 to 34 pages overnight. They won’t ever let go of that hockey stick.