COP16 - Sunday AM Update

In an informal plenary, the President of the COP, Mexico's Foreign
Minister Patricia Espinosa, just set out some process rules going
forward. The rules would not make sense if you had not experienced
COP15 in Copenhagen.  At its most fundamental level, negotiations
require trust. COP15 destroyed trust.  The Danish government was guilty
of double-dealing. Ignoring consensus negotiating text and surprising
delegations with new text from the Presidency (based on side talks with
other countries). Then Obama arrived, hand picked a few countries to
negotiate in a hotel room, and forced a bogus deal to conclusion.  UN
meetings require transparency.



So the President's set of rules were all based on establishing that
there is no secret text from Mexico, and that there will not be one.  As
negotiations so far have been at the civil service level and political
ministers start the high-level session Tuesday afternoon, Espinosa laid
out the rules of engagement.  Ministers will not be meeting on their
own off to the side. Ministers will not limit access to other Ministers
and will not be allowed to supplant the work of working group chairs.



The developing countries, through the Group of 77, strongly support
that there be no "shadow ministers in negotiation.". Then the EU
agreed. The EU Climate Negotiator was Danish Environment Minister and President
of last year's COP -- Connie Hedegaard. She was not effective at COP15,
but she was reportedly at daggers drawn with PM Rasmussen and it is
likely he had far more blame for the disaster than she. She left the
Danish government to be the EU's climate negotiator. Venezuela made a
very impassioned plea about the need for urgency based on recent
flooding there.



Speeches continue....