Frustration, free food and a fortunate meeting!
Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by annac in E.U., United Kingdom
The tracker team LOVE the official receptions, but this time someone else was there too...
So it turns out this tracking malarkey is actually rather easy…
Go to official reception, get in queue for a drink, meet lead negotiator! (why did I never think of this before…I’m British, she’s British where else would we meet but the booze queue!)
Actually I jest, because I always go to the official receptions (free food and drink in generally one of the swankiest buildings in the city who wouldn’t go?), and I generally never see Jan.
But last night she was there. Maybe she also needed to relax a bit, because it seems it’s not just me who’s frustrated with how things are going anymore.
We had a chat as we waited for our drinks and I think Jan may be quite frustrated too. She was quick to tell me that yesterday did not go well.
Yesterday the Africa group walked out of the discussions on the Kyoto Protocol. They said they would not take part in any groups or discussions around the KP, which basically translates to discussions around emissions reductions, until Annex 1 (most developed countries) upped their numbers. Specifically they were referring to the numbers for mid term (2020) emission reductions.
So now all these negotiations have been suspended until the issue is resolved and African countries brought back into the negotiations.
This means in the last 4 days of negotiations before Copenhagen one whole half of this process is not taking place!
That’s not really good for anyone, as we obviously need to move forward on this as quickly as we can. But the Africa group obviously thought they had no other way of making the point that what we have on the table is just not good enough.
They are obviously frustrated too.
All is not as simple as it seems and I’m still trying to get my head round the complexities of what this all means and where we go now. But it seems we have quite a situation on our hands. A situation that all the negotiators are having to deal with.
It seems the frustration is building all round, not just in the activists.
Every time I meet Jan I realise we have more in common than I could ever have imagined.
What we all know though, is not getting anywhere is definately not the answer
Lets hope we can all channel this frustration into something constructive over the next few days!
Or we’ll all be in the booze queue come Copenhagen!
The first sign that something had happened yesterday was when we saw this sign appear on the screens
Great post! Wish I could be there with you. Good luck for the coming days. xx