Day 7: Update on Fossil Of The Day Awards

Canada has taken the lead today, yesterday they were tied with Ukraine for 1st with 4.

Yesterday night Canada won a first place for suggesting to switch the base year from 1990 to something more contemporary. This is so that their political numbers seem bigger, and is a complete fallacy.

Croatia also supported the Canadian initiative and won a first for it as well.

Second place: Russia, for saying their commitments are just a political action and not actually going to happen or a submission to the Kyoto Protocol.

A new award, The Ray of HOPE, an award for the country that did the most to save the future was award today to Tuvalu, the fourth smallest nation, with the third smallest population size, Wikipedia it for more information.

Tuvalu: To discuss the legal outcome of the COP. They must be legally binding and enforcable.

Some interesting facts. Of the 195 countries in the UN. 194 of them have signed the Kyoto Protocol. The remaining country is the United States of America. No don't be little them for not signing. They routinely, (at least some of their politicains do), point out how signing doesn't do anything, look at Canada. Canada signed on yet hasn't attempted to meet their targets. As well, I joined in on a Tar sands protest. The Tar Sands are TARnishing Canada's reputation, and in fact Canada is stalling climate talks and negotiations more than any other Annex 1 country currently. We were in fact ranked 8th out of the G8 on a 2009 ranking of climate change policy, past, present and future in a WWF report. Shame on Us!

Day 6: Plenary (Actual UNFCCC Proceedings)

Today because of what was being talked about, CDM's, and adaptation policy I spent about 3 hours in the actual UN proceedings observing the countries questions, rebuttals, suggestions and etc. For a while it was quite interesting, especially right before lunch.

Tuvalu announced that they wanted what ever treaty is created here to be legally binding, and mostly that it should be ammendments to strengthen the Kyoto Protocol. Not that a new Copenhagen Protocl is needed, according to my knowledge of what happened. The African Nations supported it, Japan agreed, as did Australia (I think), the U.S. is kind of on the fence about supporting it, but I think they might have agreed. Small Island nations also supported it. India and China are against it. Most OPEC nations were very against it as well, notably Saudi Arabia, as well as South Africa.

The language of the actual UN meetings is remminicent of watching the film Clockwork Orange, after a while you learn to extract a meaning from the gibberish.

The Clean Development Mechanism:

General breakdown of proceedings, suggestions:

Developed Countries: Regional Distribution, more CDM credits, and no cap on credits, keep forestry credits temporary.
Africa (Non-OPEC): More Regional distribution, make forestry credits non-temporary.
OPEC: Include Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Africa (OPEC): More regional distribution, include CCS, make forestry credits non-temporary.
China and India: No regional distribution (let the developed countries choose where to invest their money, otherwise it is unfair)
Brazil: Forest credits should be non-temporary.
ALL: Streamline the process, make it easier to understand, and more transparent.

The above took about three hours by the way.

Now I am having a break, and deciding what fun activity I shall enjoy tonight, probably sleep...