AT THE FRONT … as events unfold

Notes by Mark Kirwin

Thu, Dec. 17, 2009

9:06 am

MBB made it- I am inside with new badge. It seems more like Bangkok and Barcelona now. Less stress amongst the people.

More later...

9:23 am

I have now gone through my 4th security check. The tables area where we had our table is now occupied by party delegates, and by the elegance of their clothes, you would expect that these are the higher level delegates.

I had a very nice chat with a person gentleman from the German press on the bus ride in. Apparently, the press access is not limited, but they find it difficult to cover all of the stories because so much is going on.

I can now pick out the familiar faces from Bangkok and Barcelona- time to go say hello...

12:52 pm

The president just announced that the CMP and COP are to form two more contact groups to work on the text previously submitted by the groups. Ms. Connie H is to be the chair of both groups with the sub-chairs from the previous chair positions as facilitators. Two texts will be prepared in the coming hours. Sudan insisted that the text has to be agreed upon by all the parties before the text goes to the heads of state. No objections were made to this intervention. The process shall be transparent with proper representation.

9:22 pm

The AWG-KP now decided to form a “Friends of the Chair” group to assist the Chair with moving forward on the remaining issues where no consensus was reached today during more informal consultations/contact groups on the separate issues of the KP. The motion was put forth by Sweden and joined by the other groups in a rare consensus.

Regarding the LCA, there was movement coupled by statements that key elements of the issues needed political intervention. While the capacity building and financial institutional arrangement groups had constructive movement, key portions of the text remain undecided. The groups wanted more time to work tonight, but also realized that the waiting ministers (or to a higher level) might be needed to solve the undecided issues. For instance, REDD plus has brackets on major issues such as sources of finance and NAMA’s. Part of the issues with REDD are interlinked to undecided issues in other groups. At the conclusion of the issue reports by the group chairs, several countries intervened with disagreement on the informal group reports as to certain issues in the text.

Sweden summed it up by saying that there is not much time and much work is needed. It suggested more informal consultations through a Friends of the Chair further approach. Several groups suggested that it is the world that matters and not some much the technical issues or dissention in the few hours left. The Friends of the Chair group should be transparent.

I would venture to say that the negotiators will be working through the night.

Fri, Dec. 18, 2009

3:24 pm

Dear All: President Obama just spoke. He states that the bottom line to US financing was transparency. There must be accountability for an agreement to work. The time to talk is over. President Obama indicated that the time to act has come.

President Obama has now left the plenary.

The leaders must now meet behind closed doors to try and reach consensus for a declaration on principles for climate change policy.

I wish them well and I hope they can compromise.

Peace

Mark