To avoid deadlock, negotiators have until December 9th to reach three goals: the Green Climate Fund, the spread of green technologies to poor country, a second five – year commitment period.
The problem is that while Europe envisages a new legally binding successor to Kyoto, developing countries and USA would prefer a looser agreement, such as the one approved in Cancun. One of the two coalition will have to change position.
Expectations at the COP17 in Durban are low, but meaningful progress could be made on finance for developing countries. Two climate finance innovations in particular should be reached: results – based payments and perpetuity funds. Without more affordable funding and more of it , poor countries will not be able to foster climate projects and to develop in a clean and sustainable way.
The 48-country Least Developed Countries bloc (LDCs) and the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) are asking that a new climate agreement covering all nations starts immediately. Many of them are vulnerable to climate impacts such as drought or flood.
“There is no a plan B, just as there is no a planet B”. Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, explains in a passionate speech why failure to reach an agreement at COP17 was not an option: the future of humanity is at risk.
The Labour minister John Prescott said to the Guardian that countries should suspend the Kyoto protocol to continue negotiantions on its future.
Activists from across the globe demanded that the World Bank get out of climate finance. “Occupy COP17” is a south – african ribellion movement that demand climate justice and want that developed nations pay their climate debt. Before the mass march on the Global Day of Action this Saturday, a call has been made yesterday for a mass, non-violent, general assembly in the street.
Geo – engineering the planet’s climate needs further research, said the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, a coalition formed in 2010 of the Royal Society, Italian – based academy of science for the developing world Twas, and US non – profit, the Environmental Defence Fund.
Various techniques, from huge space reflectors in orbit to stratospheric aerosols released in the upper atmosphere, have been suggested to tackle climate change.

Photo by brunosan