This is the official blog of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the UN climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland (COP14/CMP4). The delegation, a project of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and TakingITGlobal, is a diverse team of committed young Canadian leaders, from coast to coast to coast. They will be live on the ground at the talks in Poland from Nov. 29th to Dec. 12th. Stay tuned for the latest news and updates from these critical negotiations!!
3rd Place: The Umbrella Group (Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the US)
The Umbrella group wins third fossil for proposing, by way of Australia, a joint session of the ad-hoc KP (Kyoto Protocol) and LCA (Longterm Cooperative Action) working groups. Eventually, these groups will have to converge for the treaty at Copenhagen. But at this moment, suggesting a joint session undermines the trust of the non-Annex I countries. It looks like an attempt by the biggest emitters to avoid discussion their emissions commitments… or to push similar commitments on the rest of the world.
2nd Place: Philippines and Saudi Arabia
Philippines win a Fossil for arguing that the LCA was spending too much of its time on ’shared vision,’ and wanting to overturn the Accra decision to establish a shared vision contact group. Saudi Arabia shares the fossil dishonours for chiming in that the Philippines view should be given more weight because Philipinnes represents the G77… even though this particular view was NOT a G77 position, and the Philippines was representing only itself. The shared vision contact group is an important building block for success at Copenhagen; it helps nobody to try to chip away at it now.
1st place: European Union member states
The EU Member States, individually and collectively, win the first place fossil tonight–despite their historic reputation for leadership on climate change–for coming to Poznan without a credible position and mandate on financing mitigation and adaptation in the South… and at the same for time running away from binding financial commitments in the EU climate and energy package. Concrete commitments are necessary for building trust on the road to Copenhagen, but Europe’s leadership is collapsing. Europe! The world needs you now!
