The Great Escape

Or "How they help us help ourselves lose the fight" by Anjali Appadurai Is the climate regime unraveling before our eyes in Durban? There are some scary indications that it is. Some Parties are "cautiously optimistic" (India), some are "reasonably optimistic" (Brazil) and some believe that this is all going down the drain (a different Indian negotiator). The truth is, expectations are all over...

Who Are These Guys Anyway?

by Joe Perullo I decided to do some investigating on who exactly the country delegates were.  Who hires them? Who are they really representing? What do they do outside of the UNFCCC? When we say the US is stalling progress and shoving responsibility onto developing countries, who exactly do we mean?  A lot of fingers are pointed at the delegates, but they're just people, right? The US was my...

Speak for Yourself

by Katie O'Brien I cannot speak for anyone other than myself. It seems obvious—at least to me it does—because how can I speak on things I have not experienced myself? But this is exactly the problem with the UNFCCC process (and other processes as well but lets not go into that today): speaking on behalf of people. I suppose my statement wasn’t entirely true because in applying to be a...

Graham’s Intervention to the SBI:

Yesterday, Graham Reeder gave an intervention during a plenary of the Subsidiary Body for implementation.  Earth in Brackets plans to post videos of Graham's and Julian's interventions, so look out.   Thank you chair, My name is Graham and I am here with College of the Atlantic to speak on behalf of the youth constituency. We appreciate the work we have seen to ensure solid outcomes and...

Agriculture, Aviation, and Article 4.1.(c): a report-back from Sector Specific Approaches

by Trudi Zundel Yesterday Parties met for the first time to talk about cooperative sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions under the Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action. Sectoral approaches are simply work programmes that are specific to different sectors, like agriculture, aviation, or waste managment, for example. These sector-specific actions are supposed to "enhance the...