COP21 Final Blog – Day 13

The morning after 13 days- 3 all nighters… And the Paris Agreement is accepted. The COP21 decision is agreed. What does it all mean? I have been working on climate for the last 29 years. In that time I have seen lip service from most politicians, courage from a few politicians, venality from some corporations ...

COP21 Day 12

Yesterday, December 11th, was a day of suspended animation. So forgive me for not writing my daily blog yesterday. To make up for it, you’ll likely get two today. At 5:30 AM Friday the all-night “Indaba for solutions” adjourned with news from Laurent Fabius, COP21 President, that a new text would be released on Saturday. ...

COP21 Day 10

After 5 hours of commentary, complaint and suggested possibilities for compromise, the informal round of talks called an “indaba” broke up at 5 am. If President Fabius (who personally chaired this session) thought we had made progress, it was not evident. We are circling the drain. Not just those of us in Le Bourget, but ...

COP21 Day 8 – Negotiations move behind closed doors

Monday December 7 was the official opening of the high-level segment. In the normal rhythm of the COPs, this would have been a big day with ministers of environment from around the world, and the occasional head of government making statements. But, as mentioned in other blogs, this time, with over 150 leaders having spoken ...

COP21 moves to new phase

Sunday and COP21 moved to the working groups to review cross-cutting issues.  There were four groups announced by COP President Fabius last night, with another announced today – adaptation.  We also learned that Canadian Minister Catherine McKenna has been asked to be co-facilitator for a group as well.  This is further evidence that Canada is ...

COP21 Blog at mid-point

I am amazed. The deadline of having ADP wrap by noon Saturday and send a draft text accepted as a sufficient basis for political negotiation was met. The draft text with the addition of “reflections” from the co-chairs (a neat process to take on board and submit the complaints, additions and pleadings that failed to ...

COP21 Day 5 – Crunch time

All around us, Paris is abuzz with empowering, high voltage events (run on renewable energy of course!)  Today Al Gore addressed a group of young people, Leonardo de Caprio and Robert Redford met with hundreds of mayors in downtown Paris, Elon Musk (of Tesla) called on the world to leave fossil fuels in our (virtual) ...

COP21 Day 4

The cracks hiding behind the diplomatic veneer are rising to the surface.  In ADP developing country negotiators spoke more clearly about why it is unfair for Industrialized countries to ignore their responsibility (our responsibility) for having created the crisis of climate change. Low-lying island states argued more passionately for holding global average temperature to no ...

COP21 – Day 3

If this blog were a climate text, it would look like this:   Green party supporters and civil society actors to consider the of climate negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which the parties to this , , ...

COP21 Day 2

This was the second day of COP, but our first day of negotiations.  The leaders of nations from around the world have jetted home.  (My friend New Zealand Green MP Kennedy Graham pointed out in his blog today that we actually do not have “world leaders” – just leaders of various nations.) The place felt ...