Make you Fink on Friday

In the past few posts I have alluded to too much talk and not enough action.

Today, I offer proof.

Lima climate talks agree on just one paragraph of deal with 24 hours left

As crucial UN climate summit in Peru enters final hours, negotiators have made little progress on draft text

‘We have seen the laggards throwing in language of all kinds into the negotiating document,’ said Tony de Brum, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands. Photograph: IISD

Negotiators working on a deal to fight climate change have agreed on just a single paragraph of text, casting a shadow over the prospects for a strong outcome in Lima.

The talks – scheduled to end at noon local time on Friday after 10 full days – are intended to provide a clear blueprint for a global agreement to fight climate change by the end of next year.

But while negotiators descended on Lima in a positive mood, buoyed by recent commitments from the US and China, the talks have fallen into a rut.

“We are going backwards,” said Alden Meyer, who monitors the climate negotiations for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Those at the talks still have every expectation that Lima will produce some kind of agreement by Friday evening, or more likely early Saturday morning – but the paralysis is in stark contrast to the upbeat backdrop to the summit’s opening.

“I am not really sure that we will see a clear outcome coming here in Lima,” said the former Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, who addressed the meeting.

By Thursday morning the text, which had started at a reasonable six pages, had ballooned to about 50, with negotiators throwing in their objections to almost every single clause. Just one section, paragraph 34, on countries intensifying engagement in the years up to 2020, has been agreed by negotiators.

Source: TheGuardian Read more

Opinion:

One paragraph approved from 50 pages…

That’s pretty dismal.

And, just goes to show that there’s not really a lot of interest in doing anything.

Ten days of negotiations and that’s the best they can do; one lousy paragraph that doesn’t mean anything until 2020.

For pity’s sake, wake up!

Before it’s too late… if it isn’t already.