Fossil of the Day: And the Swiss take the Cake

Fossil of the day: Switzerland’s fear of commitment, Brazil’s struggle to count and AOSIS shines bright with ambition.

Switzerland took out first place in the daily Fossil of the Day awards today, with a spin around a Lima city block in a car they couldn’t commit to buying. Not on paper anyway.

The award paralleled the European nations’ refusal to commit to binding legal contributions and their subsequent threat that if developing countries demanded them, they would risk the entire outcome of COP20.

Brazil won second place for saying in talks “there is no double counting in CDM” when in fact, double counting emissions in Climate Development Mechanisms has been well established and is a serious accounting problem.

This double talk landed Brazil with the award to demonstrate the need for transparency and integrity in the flight against climate change.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel today with aRay of the Day awardwhere a country is recognised for exceptional contribution of climate action was also awarded for the first time.

The Alliance of Small Island States, AOSIS, received the prize for being the first to completely commit to a 100 per cent phasing out of carbon emissions by 2050.

AILAC and Norway have also followed suit, keeping the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees alive.

Winners are announced everyday of the COP20 in Lima.