Some real drama last night: African delegates, as a group, walked out of the closed session discussing the Kyoto Protocol, thus stopping the proceedings. They were protesting at the lack of moves from the developed countries to put meaningful emissions reductions targets for 2020 on the table. Their move was supported by the rest of the developing country group (G77 and China), though cautiously, as there are some disagreements about the timing of their action, and the issue selected.The good news is that there was a shift in the planned process of the discussions, which means that the Africa Group is now seen as a serious player. Up until now, the group has rarely spoken with one voice. Watch this space – if there is still no progress on the key emission numbers that are needed on the table before a Copenhagen agreement can be negotiated, will there be further action from the African Group and others?

Next week, on 9th and 10th November, Maldives is hosting a meeting of the Most Vulnerable Countries – and up to 100 heads of state were invited. It is actually going to be ministers that attend the meeting, which seeks to find common interest amongst a diverse group of countries who will be badly impacted by climate change, while contributing, in total, no more than 4% of global emissions.

I must get back to work – preparing for Practical Action’s side event tonight, on how to ensure adaptation support will reach the most vulnerable communities. I will be joined on the platform by Jon Ensor from our UK office, and Ranga Palawalla from our South Asia office in Sri Lanka. More of that later …

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Campaigns, Climate Change, Copenhagen 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.