State of play.

COP14 is over, but what exactly does that mean? It means we are way behind. The most recent milestone of international climate negotiations was the development of the "Bali Action Plan" at COP13 last year. This document established a framework from which climate negotiations would proceed during the following 24 months leading up to Copenhagen. Not much has happened since then. We are no nearer a...

Survival is Non-Negotiable

(a piece I put together with some other youth for our daily publication in Poznan) We must safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples. There is no other way to put it. To do otherwise would be one of the greatest tragedies of all time. Negotiators must quickly raise the level of ambition if we are to meet this necessary goal. To wait any longer is unacceptable. Young people have laid out...

Also our business

by Sarah “Adaptation is also our business,”as stated by Andrew Defrancesco which was the title of a side even this afternoon put on by members of the EU. The room was packed, and as we sat in rows and sweated, the presenters made some interesting and important points. According to IPCC predictions, the Mediterranean is going to be one of the areas of the world most affected by climate change....

Canada rhymes with Rona?

by Virginie Yesterday morning, I arrived at the conference center slightly disheartened: little or no progress has been made on the issue I have been closely following, namely post-2012 or the Beyond Kyoto “bubble”. Nonetheless, we had a big day ahead with opportunities to listen to Kofi Annan, Sir Nicholas Stern (lead UK economist and author of the Stern report) and the ministerial...

Emission Targets: please finish your sentences

by Juan The 12th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC has shown the different ways in which numbers can be manipulated to comply with the Kyoto. Canada, for example, conveniently has spoken of achieving 60% reductions by 2050. The number alone will place Canada as a leader in meeting Kyoto-and-beyond targets, but they omitted the rest of the sentence. 60% reductions using a 2003 baseline, that...