The Beginning of the End: Some things to keep in mind when the Doha outcome is shoved down your throat

by Anna Odell It's becoming about that time where we can see the end of this COP (and with it, perhaps the end of the planet? But that's another blog). While there is so much work left to be done, there is now just a mere day and a half to complete it (though it seems as though delegates are rebooking their returning flights to the end of the weekend). Now is about the time when we will...

If the Kyoto Protocol is buried in the sands of Doha…

by Nada Zidan "At a time when we should be getting ready for Christmas, we will be counting the dead in our country," said Bernarditas Castro-Muller, Philippines negotiator in the LCA session on agreed outcome on Monday December 3rd, 2012. Irony of fate, typhoon Bopha hit the Philippines on the exact same day Bernarditas stated the above-and just like the hundreds of other extreme...

We stand with the Philippines

Today in the AWG-KP closing plenary the Chair forwarded a contentious draft text to the next level of negotiations; the Phillipines gave this tearful intervention among applause from civil society Madam Chair, Thank you for giving me the floor. I wish to make a statement on behalf of my own country.   At the onset, let me fully support the statement made by Algeria on behalf of G77 and...

Doha climate deal is conditional: what other alternative does it leave for the Least Developed Countries?

by Angeline Annesteus & Lurette Paulime One of our goals coming to the climate negotiations in Doha was to lobby the Haitian Government. We have been meeting with the delegates and have had some very thought-provoking conversations. However after a long discussion at lunch yesterday with the delegation and the Minister of the Environment, Jean Vilmond Hilaire, we realized how firm they...

Loss and Damage: Missing from the text

by Graham Reeder and Katie O'Brien As we came to Doha last week, we were fully expecting Loss and Damage to be a key outcome of this conference in Doha. Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC went to the African Meeting of the Ministers of the Environment to encourage them to push for more adaptation outcomes at this COP (mostly because she saw it as the only real deliverable...