Greenpeace

Yesterday was a big day in Montreal, after the first two days of opening sessions and discussions; we had out first important decision at the U.N. International Climate Change Meeting. At around 11:00am yesterday, the delegates agreed to adopt the Marrakech Accords. This decision was an important milestone in the continuing international effort to fight global warming. The Marrakech Accords is the rulebook for the Kyoto Protocol, and adoption of the Accords makes the rules international law. There was concern that the adoption of the Accords would be more difficult, and that Saudi Arabia would try and muck it up. With the adoption of the Accords, applause broke out throughout the room. It was an exciting moment. Yesterday also saw two interesting events with the U.S. delegation. In an afternoon side event the U.S. talked about their progress, or frankly, lack of progress to address the growing threat from global warming. Their presentation was simply more of the same. Voluntary programs and some vague hope that some yet to be discovered technology will solve the problem of rising global warming pollution. Later in the afternoon, I had the opportunity along with my colleagues from other U.S. non-profits, to ask specific questions of the U.S. delegation. When asked what they hoped to see come out of the meetings in Montreal, it was clear that they do not wish to see any meaningful progress on a timeframe or framework for further reductions in binding limits on global warming pollution for the post 2012 period. In another good piece of news, discussions on the post 2012 period have begun in earnest. The first proposal has been but on the table by developing countries and China. This is a good first step, and is now the basis for further discussions among all the delegates. We will learn more over the next couple of days on whether the delegates are moving in the right direction, so stayed tuned.