I spend 2 weeks a year in Bonn – but I’ve never been here in August until this year. Bonn is the seat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and today starts the third major negotiating session here this year as countries try to build a new global climate framework by December. Bonn 3 was supposed to be a quiet session, but chairman Michael Zammit Cutajar just raised the stakes. He told NGOs and delegates he views this meeting as part of the next big session in Bangkok… so this is now a major negotiating session, one …

The U.S. Secret Service and the press are on higher alert with the arrival of U.S. congressional delegations at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poznan as the second week of the conference gets underway. While the official Bush delegation is remaining low-profile -- even evading questions at today's press conference -- most Democratic congressional teams are pitching better times just around the corner on Capitol Hill. One of the hottest topics of the conference is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation -- REDD. Getting policy discussions underway in the coming year is a top priority for environmentalists heading …