Debriefing

Although the students did not reach the consensus, they have learned a lot. The real climate negotiations also reflect complex nature of commitments. During this session students watched the video from the UNFCCC debate. Having seen political debates, the students realized that there are many similarities.


Thank you very much for your participation!
Your oikos Student Reporters
http://www.oikos-international.org/

Breaking news: No agreement signed.

No agreement was signed. No Protocol, no Accord, nothing. 40 delegates flew to Barcelona, emitting hundreds of tonnes of dioxide and spending over 100 days worth of their time (in total), for an session which had no agreement at all. 

Even Copenhagen was better than this.

German statement

Final vote session

Numerous representatives had reservations and questions during the voting. The adaptation group's proposal was accepted by consensus with the additional footnote from Bolivia. However, delegates could not agree to the mitigation proposal. Grenada and Tuvalu proposed to remove the mitigation section from the protocol which was rejected by the President. The countries rejected noting in the protocol that they disagreed with this part.

Having announced the break, President consulted the experts. In the meantime, countries continued discussing proposals. After the technical break, President announced that the protocol will be replaced by non-legally binding call.

The trading part was accepted by consensus. President proposed to take mitigation part as not legally binding ESADE accord which was rejected.

The most problematic countries..

Tuvalu and Genada being the most problematic countries of the negotiation. They think that the promise that lowering down to 1.5 degrees is short term promise to make them negotiate. According to the statement of Tuvalu Representative they are here to survive, if they don't agree on 1.5 degree Tuvalu will disappear and they'll become refugees in Australia

Photo source: www.saawinternational.org

From the break:

German delegate doubts in the agreement and worries about this family situation after hurricane.











Australia and Switzerland explain their positions.






Papua New Guinea persuading fellow AOSIS delegates.

Latest press statement!

"We are very pleased to announce that we have reached a very satisfactory multinational agreement on the further development and implementation of the Carbon Capture and Storage technology. We believe that this technology will bring us a large step further in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We will take action on this independently of any agreements reached today, but we invite all interested countries to join us in our efforts."


/Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia/

Canada under pressure

France and China announced that they will consider serious measures against Canada, Australia and New Zealand if they do not reconsider their position. There are rumors that China thinks about organizing an attack on the Canadian representatives. Some sources have mentioned involvement of Israeli secret service.

Photo source:nzm-virux.blogspot.com

German representatives working and posing during lunch

Proposal by Chair of Mitigation Working Group

The mitigation group has prepared the final proposal after long discussions. Detailed results are as follows:

• the parties agree that no more than a 2 degrees increase in global temperature;
• financial contributions are to be made from developed countries to countries facing severe problems with climate change adaptation;
• the parties are willing to commit to taking extensive measures in technology trading, green and sustainable development, and emission reduction attempts.

Negotiations continue through lunch

Canada, the US, France, and Switzerland continued to negotiate over lunch. Canada described themselves as a 'small' country, and continued to argue with Switzerland after the other delegates had given up and gone for lunch.

France told Canada they were threatening the whole negotiations by refusing to cooperate, which Canada strenuously denied.

Mitigation group at a deadlock

The last minutes of working groups' meetings are not too fortunate for the mitigation group. The representatives still cannot reach any agreement. Most of them still try to force their own ideas and do not express a will to compromise. Number of delegates in the room is changing every minute. The most often heard words are: no, not acceptable, higher costs, objection...

Which countries will take climate change refugees???

Climate change refugees don't have any right to choose which country to go to. Countries have to decide itself who to take and who not to. India is willing to take Bangladeshi refugees, Australia and New Zealand is willing take AOSIS refugees. Countries don't agree with the proposal that they are obliged to develop bilateral agreements with neighborhood countries. US representative comments "If we agree with it, it means that we have to take the whole Mexico"

Chinese Representative isn't sure if it will take Muslim refugees or not, as they already have some problems with Muslim populations.

Trading Working Group: summary of agreements

Trading Working Group agreed that:

- CDM is to be continued;
- this document will be signed independently of Barcelona Protocol;
- aim to reduce bureaucracy, increase efficiency;
- introduce framework to allow non annex I countries to invest in other non annex I countries.
- strive towards less regional inequalitiies
- CDM will not include nuclear in CDM
- CDM will include REDD

A representative of the Mitigation group interrupted this summary to announce that if we all reaching an agreement on emissions target, then the distinction between annex I and non- annex I over. 'CDM is no option' everything should be JI.' Delegates are now discussing the difference between JI and CDMs.

Secret consultations

During the break, a number of representatives decided to secretly consult external experts and the President, Mr Elmar Friedrich. Will these informal talks increase chances for the consensus or cause suspicions of the other countries? In the meantime, chairs are recalculating the model with new results.

Swiss press statement

"The Swiss delegation is highly disappointed with the EU representatives' action of declaring lack of cooperation to the public media before consulting with the relevant involved parties. It now doubts the EU's devotion to the alliance with Switzerland and to the common goals of striving for a binding agreement to emission reductions and the "2 degrees Celsius" target.
Switzerland would also like to apologize for any aggression expressed in the former meeting, and would like to express its appreciation to the Chinese delegation's willingness to make compromises in promoting the global target of sustainable growth. It is highly looking forward to reaching an agreement."

/Ms Lital Shlimovich, Switzerland/

Major breakthrough - China's new proposal

The previous calculations occurred to be inaccurate. After amendments, China's position changes and it agrees for the 2.0 degrees goal now. The crucial discussions relate to deforestation numbers now.

Photo source:travelagentchina.blogspot.com

Few details from adaptation room..

Bangladesh asks for innovative techology in return it can offer fruit, rice and so on, if there is technology available for avoiding floods, disasters, they are ready to do everything in this terms.

Plenary clarifications

• The EU offers technology transfers and nothing more without China's commitment;
• China decided to rethink their position;
• Switzerland questions full consensus;
• Bangladesh and Maldives express gratitude for the technology but suggests it is not enough.

"Our reductions will not save our country and we are sorry about that!"
/the EU speaker to Maldivian delegate/

The best definition of climate change refugees

Every country has different definition of climate change refugees.

The best one belongs to Brazil, which is approved by other countries.

"people who leave their habitats, immediately or in the future, because of sudden or gradual alternations in their natural environment related to at least one of these impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events and drought or water scarcity."

Russia is missing....

Starting yesterday Russia hasn't attended neither working group meetings nor plenaries, causing a confusion. It seems that Russia doesn't want to negotiate... or today's rumors are true and it's honeymoon of three, they are enjoying the city instead of participating in the negotiations and making their contribution. It seems that Russia's representatives aren't strong enough to present their position...

Chinese delegate leaving

Stirred Chinese delegate decided to leave the debate protesting against Swiss behaviour.

Swiss delegate hitting out on China

After a fierce discussion, the Swiss represenative lost her temper. The result was immediate...

The EU's statement to press....

The EU expresses their concerns on the way that Switzerland has addressed China in the mitigation working group. The EU wants to stress that it appreciates the Chinese progression in its acknowledgements to emission reductions. Furthermore they would not like to be associated to the reaction of Switzerland as it is not going towards the same direction negotiations have taken so far.

China blocks negotiations

Chinese representative, Daniel Roos: "We are a perfect country for CDM projects. It is relatively cheap to cut emission in our country but we still have to feed our 1.3 bln people. Please think about absolute numbers. We will engage in some CDMs in Africa."
Switzerland suggests that the debate should concentrate more on human life. China answers that it has never agreed to any fixed commitments. In reply, the Bolivian representative shows that in the first time in the history, his country will commit.

Photo source: afro-ip.blogspot.com

Chinese forcing Tuvalu to 'sign own death warrant'

China's static stance in the negotiations is causing increasing frustration within the AOSIS and Swiss delegations. China has been very unwilling to commit to emissions reductions, citing high growth as the principle reason. They currently propose to peak emissions in 2030.

Citizens of Tuvalu are being offered a safe haven in Australia, but Grenada insists they do not want to be refugees. Grenada will not sign the proposal as it stands, as they claim it will 'sign their own death warrant', and Switzerland supports this decision.

China implies to dislocate inhabitants of Maldives

The Chinese government proposed to find a new place for the Maldivian population. The EU strongly protested about this selfish behavior. Ms Andrea Fix from Maldives looked really worried during the session. In the meantime, Chinese representative paid a visit to the external expert to check his numbers.
The majority of delegates work hard to convince China for further commitments.

The waste of time....

Climate Refugees vs Technology transfer

The binding agreements already exist about climate refugees, but it seems that the representatives have no idea about it and they are just wasting time discussing how much money is needed and what contributions they countries have to make instead of discussing the main issues and negotiating..

New proposal developed!

New proposal developed in the adaptation group: Annex I country contributing 0.25% of their GDP to GCF starting in 2012, China and Brazil 0.1% from 2015. These conditions for the funding will apply until 2020. GCF after 2020 would be renegotiated and will work after 2020 with higher funding. Latest contribution starting year of India would be 2020.

China run out of power - Maldives help!

China is facing a power outage. Technology transfer from Maldives helps to solve the problem.

Is it a sign of a new energy coalition? The respective representative of China run out of power for his laptop. Having lost the connection to its government, China's representative could not continue the negotiations and was to leave the room in search of the power source. Then the rescue came! The Maldives saved the debate with the power cord!

Angela Merkel calls back her delegate

Great surprise in the EU coalition! The German representative in the mitigation group agreed to support extending the use of nuclear power. Is it a sign that influences of France are growing in the EU group?
The latest anti-nuclear protests in Germany showed that the society is strongly against this source of energy. More than 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated across Germany. Angela Merkel had bo choice but to call back the delegate who agreed to voted for the nuclear power plants.


Photo source: boetschiklatscht.blogspot.com

India not trusting Germany?

India relates to the call back of the German representative. Indian delegate expressed a fear that commitmment made by Mr Antxon Hauet may be not accepted by his government.

The immediate reaction of the French delegate: "There was a simplification in the press! These are third generation nuclear plants which the high level of safety. Only these specific plants will be supported. It is a necessity, not a long-term measure."

Mr Hauet: "I do not push for the nuclear energy to be regarded as a renewable energy source. It is only a necessary transition mean. We are not supporting long-term nuclear energy strategy!"
We are awaiting German government reaction.

No Technology transfer in India??

China and Brazil had agreed to start contributing 0.1% of their GDP, while India refuses to do so. The US representative Eugenia Tarasova commented : "You're not willing to contribute at all, but you make it look nice by saying that you'll start contributing from 2030. So, no participating no technology transfer in India"

Opening Plenary

The adaptation working group chair announced that it is impossible to agree over the number of 1.5 degrees. Therefore, the issue of climate refugees will be discussed. There is a call for all countries joining this comittee as the refugees will have to find new country of residence.

The respective delegate from Brazil (WWT): "This is the last day of the negotiations. My recommendation is to be open-minded, to try to reach the conclusion together. Otherwise, we all loose."

The chair of mitigation working group expressed condolences for the German representative.

BREAKING NEWS: Hurricane Mercedes hits Germany, killing 118.

This is the first time in history we have seen such a powerful hurricane in Europe: a fact scientists attribute to the increase in temperature in the air near the Earth's surface. The powerful hurricane swept its path of destruction across southern Germany, devastating the Baden-Württemberg region, bringing the German auto industry to it's feet as the BMW and Daimler plants were destroyed.


Mr Jalal Koubaiti, German auto-mobile tycoon, has a residence in Stuttgart, and it has been confirmed that his family are among those who have died in this freak weather event. Mr Koubaiti, who is currently at the UNFCCC negotiations in Barcelona, has been informed. He was delayed at the UNFCCC negotiations because of the funeral.