Durban climate conference stalemate pushes talks into extra time

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

China, India, Africa and the EU were at loggerheads on Friday night, pushing UN climate talks into extra time on Saturday as 194 countries attempted to reach a global deal to prevent dangerous global warming.

There were signs of movement on all sides, according to people in the talks in Durban, with compromises possible but no final breakthrough. Some long-standing rifts between the developing and developed countries, and between the EU and the US, appeared bridged.

A new text, seen by the Guardian, was introduced at midnight and went some way to easing the fears of developing countries that rich countries could wriggle out of their obligations.

Governments are wrangling over what form any future agreement on global warming should take, following a disappointingly weak agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 and slow progress at Cancun last year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/10/durban-un-climate-change-conference

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An Oxfam activist pretends to eat coal in a protest outside the Durban talks. Photograph: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP

Amy Goodman has been at Durban all week covering this event for Democracy Now.

[guardian]

1. The rich tradition of ineffectiveness continues.

These conferences never produce any meaningful results. It's just an excuse for climate hypocrites to jet off to some international location, stay in a 5 star hotel, eat and drink on someone else's dime, and pat themselves on the back about how they care more than you.

[pampango]

2. UN climate talks have been extended as environment ministers haggle over proposals for a new pact...

to roll back the threat from greenhouse gases.

Negotiations entered an unscheduled 13th day in South Africa on Saturday after all-night wrangling over the text of a possible agreement.

"We still have a lot of text that is not there. It is very difficult to discuss one piece without the other, because in the end the things are interconnected," said (EU Climate Commissioner Connie) Hedegaard. South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane suspended talks late on Friday after a coalition of island nations, developing states and the European Union objected to a text they said lacked the ambition.

The crux of the dispute among the 194 nations is how binding the legal wording in the final document will be. The initial draft spoke of a "legal framework", which critics said committed parties to nothing. The new draft changed the language to "legal instrument", which implies a more binding commitment, and says a working group should draw up a cuts regime by 2015. It also turns up pressure on countries to act more quickly to come up with emission cut plans.

"At this point there are two groups very split," he (Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull) said. "On the one side an unlikely alliance between the US, Brazil, India and China - for different reasons resisting the idea of those talks and a future deal, on the other side the EU and just about everyone else wants to get them off the ground as soon as possible."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/2011121071847365384.html

An "unlikely" alliance between the US and China resisting a deal. :) I'm sure the "national sovereignty" folks will resist a "legally binding deal".