Climate: Ghost of Copenhagen stalks CancunFEATURE 12/07/2010

Climate: Ghost of Copenhagen stalks Cancun

FEATURE

12/07/2010

CANCUN — World climate talks in Cancun were on Sunday entering their final stretch beset by fears of a repeat of the failures that nearly wrecked the December 2009 Copenhagen summit.

Environment ministers began arriving in the Mexican rsort city at the weekend to find themselves plunged into a mood soured by a row over the Kyoto Protocol and a logjam of inter-connected, unresolved issues.

After more talks among senior officials, the ministers on Tuesday get down to a four-day haggle, due to climax on Friday.

The outcome of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gathering is unclear, despite 12 days of meetings and a low-ambition goal, say delegates.

“We’re starting to have positions that are a bit stronger and a bit more radical,” said France’s climate negotiator Brice Lalonde, calling for a “spirit of compromise.”

Wendel Trio, the international climate policy director for environmental group Greenpeace, said that so far countries had only spelled out their “most extreme positions.”... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

 URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101207com3.html