Naderev Saño, the lead negotiator of the Philippines delegation, breaks down halfway through his prepared statement at the COP18 climate talks in Doha on Thursday. Saño was speaking about the 16th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year which killed hundreds of people. He appealed to the world: 'no more delays, no more excuses' The Guardian
As the clock winds down on the final hours of yet another COP, its business as usual, with the top guns holding firm on their unwillngness to commit to mandatory measuring and reporting on emissions while others (Think US) maintain a tight hold on their purse strings. No surprise, then, that a coalition of NGOs is describing the Qatar talks as “sleepwalking towards disaster”
“We must remind ourselves that for eight years under President Bush the US held back these climate talks, eight years we couldn’t afford to lose. We were happy to hear him mention climate change in his acceptance speech but the reality is that both the US negotiators have been a stumbling block to this process consistently in the past few years,” said Greenpeace Executive Director Kumi Naidoo.
As of this hour (Noon in Qatar) no final text has been written on the LCA document; the contract group on Finance has gaveled to a close; and Venezuala's negotiator Claudia Salerno is describing climate finance as a form of neo-colonialism (Venezuela: Climate finance is a form of blackmail).
So as we wait, without much hope, one of the most popular RTs right now truly says it all: "Those countries who stood up to lead to fight a war, do they also have the guts to lead the world to combat climate change? "
Just one more bloated, exhausting and fruitless meeting in twenty years of meetings.
No livestreaming is scheduled for hours, but if you have the stomach for it, check in when you wake up here.
Other relevant viewing
40 years of watching the Earth' Surface @ US_Center
Weather Proofing Bangladesh with Dr Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in the IIED’s climate change group
Coverage at the Side Events
Stop Climate Change, do your part by Climate Justice Movement
McCartney pens letter to Figueres
"Although more and more evidence is coming to light showing how the growth of the global meat industry is having alarming environmental consequences, the impact of the livestock sector on global warming does not as yet seem to have been acknowledged by the Conference of the Parties (COP)", writes McCartney. "I therefore call upon you to bring this issue to the attention of the conference and encourage the adoption of policy and individual actions, such as a weekly meat-free day.” A letter to Ms Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, and Mr H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, President-Designate for COP 18. Paul McCartney calls upon climate talks to take account of livestock production
12:55 AM PT: US State Dept. last presentation http://www.ustream.tv/... from #COP18 on water
12:56 AM PT: no agreement yet on loss and damage ...meeting of G77 later today
1:04 AM PT: latest text updates: Review of temperature goal, addressing whether 2 degrees already 'dangerous', looks intact.
1:05 AM PT: Latest text updates: no sign of specific work programme on equity in LCA shared vision text.
1:06 AM PT: #AWG-KP and financed texts provide nothing to deal with #climate_change, defer all important decisions to future.
1:07 AM PT: CANs ECO Newsletter http://climatenetwork.org/... what needs to happen on last day of COP18
1:09 AM PT: ‘Don’t leave this to your children’: could climate finance unlock a deal on Climate Change? Oxfam's Duncan Green on Doha http://www.oxfamblogs.org/...
1:11 AM PT: http://www.businessweek.com/...
“You have to put finance on the table to get results,” Ivonne A-Baki, delegation chief for Ecuador, said in an interview yesterday. “That way developing countries can truly reduce their emissions. We’re talking about the only planet we have.”
1:12 AM PT: [Earth in Brackets] @earthinbrackets
#cop18 cannot reach an acceptable outcome from the texts that are on table now. no money, no adaptation, no mitigation - only markets #fail
1:13 AM PT: ....sounds of mosque sermons fill the air as negotiators negotiate @ #Qatar #COP18 .....#itmighthelp