Sorry for more than 24 hours silence – non-stop meetings for me! 

We are all very worried here about the statements being made about how Copenhagen won’t lead to a legal agreement.  Ed Miliband’s comments  this afternoon are the latest in this line of troubling assertions, and is particularly disappointing given that he is the UK’s representative in the climate negotiations . We are trying to assess what these negative comments could lead to, but it is critical to keep up the pressure on negotiators AND politicians in their capitals, to ensure that there IS a binding outcome in December. Public protest and action will be needed!

Three of us from UK NGOs had a discussion with one of DFID’s negotiators this morning – she is convinced the UK government is doing all it can to get EU to take a strong position. Worryingly, she really is convinced that up to 30% reduction of emissions in Europe will be enough to keep to a 2 degree temperature rise – despite what the latest science is saying!

Last night our side event on how to ensure funding for adaptation reaches the communities that need it went well;  really good presentations, though sadly the audience was small – a late evening slot at this bleak conference centre after a hard few days with little positive so far to show for it has sapped the energy of all of us. Luckily, I was asked to be on the panel of Oxfam’s side event this morning, on a similar theme – and there were around 40 people there – and I got the chance to talk about our proposals for participatory planning and monitoring of adaptation.

This afternoon we have got hold of the latest ‘text’ on adaptation in the negotiations. It had to be cut down from the previous 13 pages, and is now less than five. Of course, some points we really wanted in have been lost, and we are trying right now to weigh up whether it is a reaonable text for going forward to Copenhagen (though further amendments are likely) and how we (all those from NGOs concerned with adaptaiton) assess it on balance.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Campaigns, Climate Change, UNFCCC 2009 Copenhagen. 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.