Dear friends and colleagues, Surprisingly good news from the climate negotiations in Cancun. After a 48-hour marathon of intense negotiations, the conference is close to adopting a global agreement. The new texts were released several hours ago and contain a rather comprehensive deal including on mitigation in both developing and developed countries, registry for developing country actions, the Green Climate Fund and an international adaptation framework. The deal is coming out of the blue, given the low expectations from this round of negotiations.
Overwhelming applause here is almost constant, including three rounds of standing ovation for the Mexican leadership. The new agreement is supported by almost everyone, including the EU, US, Japan, China and India (!!), African countries, the small island states and Saudi Arabia. So far only Bolivia and Cuba openly opposed, and Venezuela asked for further consultations. They managed to force the texts back into informals but given the almost global support it would be difficult for them to block the deal. Regards, Radoslav S. Dimitrov, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Political Science University of Western Ontario Social Science Centre London, Ontario Canada N6A 5C2 Tel. +1(519) 661-2111 ext. 85023 Fax +1(519) 661-3904 Email: [email protected]
