Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green.
The Canadian Youth Delegation has publicly apologized for the actions of the Canadian government and their negotiators at Durban, publishing an apology letter in a local newspaper.
The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, which has the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, has been selected as the site of the United Nations climate change meeting next year.
“Qatar has an appalling record of ignoring workers’ rights, especially migrants, and the decision to hold next year’s climate summit there sends a wrong message and risks delaying vital action,” global trade union representatives complained.
The United States, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia are blocking approval of the proposed Green Climate Fund framework, raising different objections to the draft text and calling for it to be negotiated at the Durban conference:
“We are still confident we are on track> with regards to the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund,” South African Environment Minister Edna Molewa said on Wednesday.
The European Union chief climate negotiator said the Green Climate Fund board must start working “as early as 2012.”
Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network demonstrated against the Shell oil company outside the South African Petroleum Refinery in Durban on Wednesday.
The Climate Action Network summarizes the huge gaps between pollution reduction pledges and what is needed to meet the goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F).
After U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing said there are an “infinite number of pathways to stay below 2 degrees C,” activists commented that “it’s surprising the U.S. is managing to avoid every single one of them”:
The European Union’s conditions to sign up for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol are “not fair” for developing countries, but China is open to negotiation, Su Wei, the nation’s leading climate negotiator, said on Wednesday.
China’s official news organ says the Kyoto Protocol must be extended, because “the developed countries’ historical responsibilities for global warming are unshirkable,” while China’s voluntary efforts are “impressive.”
The public around the world — including in the United States — believe that global warming is an urgent problem and want their governments to make it a higher priority, by taking vigorous national and multilateral actions to confront it.
