COP19 – Day Ten

The end of the UN climate change negotiations are approaching but there is little more than rumour as to if that will be Friday 5pm, Saturday 4am or Sunday 2am.

Thursday saw NGOs capture the attention of the media, who are always looking for colour at the talks, and party delegates as a walkout was stage. According to UN security, 480 people from a range of NGOs including the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation participated. The message was clear, they’re not walking out on the process but, more specifically, the lack of progress in Warsaw – many pledged to be back next year in Lima, Peru.

In the plenaries, negotiations were held over finance, REDD+ and loss and damage and lasted well into the night. The ADP stream of the negotiations is yet to close. There has been good news on progress though, with the REDD+ negotiations reaching an agreement much to the visible relief of those involved.

The divisions are still clear, with a tension between a top-down or bottom-up approach for setting targets. The latter would allow for parties to set their own targets but may not be ambitious enough.

On finance finding the actual money for the Green Climate Fund’s US$100 billion a year by 2020 target is still a stumbling block. Pledges made by parties have been underwhelming. There was also progress, albeit slow, on loss and damage with specifics around the role of developed countries. A mechanism is still needed to operate it.

Closed door negotiations are happening all over the conference centre from meeting rooms to bathrooms in the hope that ADP will wrap up having set out to achieve something.

By Andrés Fuentes, photo by Linh Do.