Some information from Poznan

Climate Conference Blog

Fossil of the Day

1st Place - Japan
For attempts to weaken its emission reduction and make them non-binding, in addition to use a baseline of "current levels" rather than 1990 levels.

2nd Place - Japan
For the first time ever Japan holds the top two spots. It wins the second fossil for a lengthy discussion of showering and bathing in a plenary session yesterday. Part of Japan's "lifestyle innovation" apparently involves limiting showers to 20 minutes.

3rd Place - Kuwait
At yesterday's round table Kuwait argued that according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Kuwait is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the adverse effects of climate change (indeed their coastal oil facilities are a big concern), and therefore should have access to the adaptation fund.

So how again did they agree to the Kyoto Protocol?

After witnessing several plenaries so far where Saudi Arabia defended the dignity of oil, Canada and Russia using the fact that they have cold winters as an excuse and Japan using precious plenary time to get into a petty fight with China over who has quicker showers, I couldn't help but think - what are we doing here?

As someone who is still relatively new to climate negotiations and international dealings, I was absolutely shocked and amazed at the activities and the comments made by some countries, clearly showing that indeed they do not have responding to the challenges faced by climate change as their top priority.

This may as yet be an unfair distinction, but save for a few countries (mostly small-island states who are experiencing the effects of climate change now) it seems that everyone seems to be avoiding coming to a solution, and coming up with "save-face" policies that makes them look productive whilst all that they are doing is prolonging the process.

If we couldn't predict the economic crisis, how can we predict climate change?

That was the gist of the comment made by the delegates of the Saudi Arabia this afternoon at a workshop on mitigation potentials for parties under the Kyoto Protocol.

After a presentation on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on future climate projections, Saudi Arabia piped up that they were concerned about projections being made 20-30 years into the future because "nobody would have predicted the world economy crisis."

They claimed that the UN was intentionally trying to do away with oil, but was still favouring coal. They pointed out that they were sending out mixed messages by wanting to have energy security, but also reducing dependency on imported oil. Translation - the Saudi Arabians are obviously miffed with the UN - no surprise.

Canada's Presentation on Mitigation: A Huge Disappointment

Canada's presentation eerily mirrored that of Russia, claiming that specific country situations should be taken into account when deciding mitigation targets, such as Canada being an oil exporting country, having long distances between big cities, and having "cold winters".

Climate Conference Blog

Unlike Bali (as I was told), most people here have opted for more business wear, whereas last year (and partly due to the sweltering heat) t-shirts, flamboyant colours and sandals were the norm.

UNFCCC Accomodates for Muslim Observation

At the special request the G77 countries, the UNFCCC made the decision that the Islamic feast of Eid Al-Adha be observed and therefore all formal meetings related to the process planned for that day be moved to the next day.
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However an apparent mix-up scheduled the holiday for Tuesday December 9 and not Monday December 8. The holiday is scheduled based on the lunar calendar. After apparently discussing when the holiday actually was, the UNFCCC moved all scheduled events on Monday over to Tuesday.