Cancun, last day

The last day was very exhausting and exciting at the same time. The negotiations went on until around 4 am on Saturday but Adriana and I had to leave the Moon Palace at 3 am to be sure of getting to the airport for our 7 am flight.

On Friday there was supposed to be an open "informal meeting" by COP president Patricia Espinosa. She had prepared a draft text for consideration by the parties. That meeting got deferred until around 6 pm. At that time a revised and expanded version of the draft text was introduced. There was a long lineup to get a copy of this text.

At one point in the meeting Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC Executive Secretary) entered the room and Adriana got me to take a photograph of them together.

When the president entered the room she got a standing ovation. Clearly everyone was very pleased with the draft text with the exception of Bolivia. Many countries praised her and the text and the openess and transparency of the process. Several times there was long applause.

In order to prepare to check out of the hotel, we left the meeting in progress and made the long bus trip back to Oasis Cancun. We packed everything so that we could leave once the meeting was concluded and returned to the meeting. We thought perhaps it would be concluded but we were wrong.

After the informal meeting concluded the formal plenary was started. First the plenary for the LCA text was started and everyone had an opportunity to speak. Bolivia objected to the text, but several other countries spoke passionately against the agreement being blocked by a single country. Eventually the president decided to accept that position. That session was suspended and the plenary on the Kyoto Protocol started and once again (I think) Bolivia protested. When Adriana and I started to leave, Bolivia was in the midst of another prolongued diatribe about being excluded. The issue was one of consensus, which Bolivia felt required that every country agree. There main point was that the agreement was not strong enough and on that point I agreed. But like most I also felt that the agreement was a sound basis on which to proceed. It embodied some fundamental principles such as the 2 degree limit, and a reference to 1.5 degree probably needing to be considered. It also acknowledge the rights of indigenous people and established a green fund for developing nations.

These are just some high-lights of the agreement.