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Monday, December 06, 2010

CBC News - Edmonton - Ad mocks Alta. oilsands at UN climate meeting

Just been checking to see what is going on in Cancun. It seems all 15,000 officials have been working hard over the week end to try to get some agreements over the last week of the conference. Here are a couple of reports in the world press.


CBC News - Edmonton - Ad mocks Alta. oil sands at UN climate meeting

An ad in a Mexican daily newspaper on Monday mocks Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner’s attendance at the United Nations conference on climate change.
A Canadian environmental group designed and paid for the ad, which features a grinning Renner wearing a sombrero. Under the photo, a fake oil association thanks the minister for keeping oil flowing from the oil sands.
Renner is in Cancun to defend the oil sands at the International Climate Conference and to talk with other countries about carbon capture and storage.
The ad appeared in Novedades de Quintana Roo, a Cancun newspaper.
“The mood going into Cancun, expectations were fairly low," said Gillian McEachern, a spokeswoman for the group Environmental Defence. "People were disappointed coming out of Copenhagen. We're trying to use a little bit of humour to lighten the mood but draw attention to a serious issue.
“It is just trying to be a bit tongue in cheek and lighten it up a bit, but coming back to the fact that this is actually a quite serious issue and we need governments in Canada to start taking it seriously and acting."
The Cancun conference is heading into its final days. About 15,000 officials are taking part.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/12/06/edmonton-cancun-renner.html#ixzz17NOEjiIW


CANCUN, Mexico – U.N. climate talks moved into their decisive week Monday with the agenda dominated by future cuts in carbon emissions and keeping countries honest about their actions to control global warming.
Government ministers arrived in force to begin applying political muscle to negotiations that in the past week have narrowed some disputes, but which are likely to leave the toughest decisions for the final hours of the 193-nation conference on Friday.
Delegates were feeling pressure to produce at least a modest agreement from the two-week U.N. meeting to restore credibility to the talks after the last summit in Copenhagen failed to agree on any binding action to rein in emissions of global-warming gases.
"We cannot leave Cancun empty-handed," warned Connie Hedegaard, the European Union's top climate official.
The conference seeks decisions on establishing a "green fund" to help poorer nations rein in greenhouse gases and to adapt their economies and infrastructure to a changing climate; an agreement making it easier for developing nations to obtain patented green technology from advanced nations; and pinning down more elements of a system for compensating developing countries for protecting their forests.
"I can see a workable result that gets decisions across all the major areas. I can't predict whether we're going to get there," said U.S. special envoy Todd Stern.
New negotiating documents put on the table over the weekend were generally well received, despite criticisms of flaws and omissions.