Forest talks at a standstill as Copenhagen ends without an agreement-Forest Watch Report

The Forest Watch report on Copenhagen can be viewed here.

The breakdown and controversial ending of the Copenhagen climate talks was predictable from the outset in a conference which was marked by secret texts, closed door meetings and walk-outs. Negotiations were halted several times over the rumoured plans to introduce a ‘Danish text’ which was outside of, and did not build upon, the official negotiation process of the ad-hoc working groups of the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and long-term cooperative action (AWG-LCA). The Danish Presidency of the conference led to further confusion and increased levels of hostility, due to an overall lack of both clarity on the process and consultation with countries. In the end, the most cited outcome of the Conference, the Copenhagen Accord,¹ was a document drawn up in the final days by a select group of countries, and only ‘noted’ by the Conference of the Parties to the UN climate convention (COP) due to the lack of consensus to adopt it as a UN document. The Accord was strongly rejected by several parties, including Tuvalu, Bolivia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, both for the lack of substance and the undemocratic nature in which it was drawn up. This raises concerns about the long term implications for multi-lateral negotiations under the UN process.

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