Saturday is usually the beginning of a weekend and a time to relax; but not in Copenhagen.
Inside the Bella Centre there is tightened security, with more police patrolling around the halls. With many ministers arriving this weekend, organisers have been working on ramping up security precautions all week – security blocks have been created inside the Bella Centre itself, in addition to the normal airport-like metal detectors and scrupulous bag and identity checks.
Outside the Centre, preparations are being put in place for the thousands of protestors expected to mark the “Global Day of Action on Climate Change”. It is noticeable that many of the environmental NGOs are not inside the Centre today but at camps around the city.
Stocktaking
Today is considered a day of stocktaking as many of the formal and informal negotiation groups report back. The suspension earlier in the week meant that the process had slowed considerably; but it resumed slowly this morning as different Parties are focusing on the two new draft texts introduced yesterday.
CCS Developments
The process on CCS in the CDM is becoming more and more complicated, even as the result is looking bleaker by the hour.
There are currently three different texts being considered, while the contact group addressing the recommendations made by the CDM Executive Board is still in consultations and still closed to non-government stakeholders. Another contact group created on Tuesday in SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice) reported back on their negotiations. The SBSTA has agreed with that group’s recommendations – this means that the SBSTA will next week recommend to the CMP (Conference of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol) that the matter should again be deferred to the SBSTA meeting scheduled for June 2010! Comments of disappointment were made by both Australia and Saudi Arabia after the gavel fell.
Yet another delay in this area is a strong loss for the environment which needs, according to both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), all the mitigation options available to ensure the planet avoids harmful global warming. CDM may not be the best delivery mechanism for CCS but it is, at this point in time, the only mechanism to finance the deployment of low carbon technologies to the developing world.
Miss of the day
The obfuscation of the SBSTA to agree a final decision on the eligibility of CCS projects under the CDM is a disappointing blow to our industry; but it is a tragic outcome both for the environment and for developing countries attempting to balance economic development (and poverty alleviation) with effective action on climate change.
Another busy day at the Bella Centre
