What is the Fossil-of-the-day about?

During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the worldwide environmental network, the Climate Action Network, vote for the country judged to have made the worst input to the negotiations. Usually, three Fossil-of-the-day awards are presented each conference day, sometimes only two or one - depending on the number of countries with outstanding efforts to block progress at the negotiations in the last days.

The awarded prizes range from little cactus plants at CoP-8 (8th Conference of the Parties) in New Delhi, 2002, to briquettes of German premium quality coal at SB-12, June 2000, in Bonn. In Lyon, in September 2000, France, the daily award ceremony was staged with the assistance of the popular Lyon-based puppeteers, Guignol. The puppet show summarized and parodied the negotiations. At Cop6 in Den Haag, November 2000, sandbags were stacked beneath the national flags of each country. Besides the regular fossil-of-the-day prizes for countries, special awards are presented to individuals and institutions.

By summing up the daily awards, the overall winner of each negotiation session is determined. At CoP-8 in New Dehli, the USA came out on top after nine award ceremonies. They overtook Saudi Arabia during the last two days and fought off last minute efforts by the Saudis to regain the crown. In Den Haag, 2000, Canada got the most fossil-of-the-day awards for its ashaming interventions.

The Fossil-of-the-day awards were first presented at Cop-5, 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. Since then, the Fossil-of-the-day ceremony has become an respected and recognized event in the negotiations triggering substantial media coverage. Each negotiation day at 6pm, the "Fossil-of-the-day" ceremony is being held in the conference centre, organised by a local CAN member group.