My Kind of Climate Change Talks

I left the main conference building yesterday to go look in on a side event that was being held in... the neighbouring soccer stadium! This is my kind of climate change talks! I must admit to stopping for a bit to watch the game between the under 20 Accra team and a team from Nigeria. Accra won 1-0 (Accra in red and blue)!

I also had a fascinating conversation in my broken French with a gentleman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has come to advocate for a mechanism that involves civil society and communities to help decide how money flowing to tropical countries to reduce deforestation is spent. He feared that without such a mechanism money would not be spent on reducing deforestation and would not help the people who live in the forest.

The industrialized country forestry talks continued behind closed doors yesterday but we have learned that negotiations may be moving more quickly than we had expected.

The Chairs of the meeting are going to present draft text on Monday that may narrow and clarify the options Parties are considering. Monday will be a busy day of trying to find out what's going on (more closed door meetings!) and talking to negotiators about what we think needs to happen to protect environmental integrity!