Running around, running around, running around, BREATH!

Day 3 at the Poznan climate change talks! Sorry I missed posting on Day 2...it's probably more realistic to try to post every second day.; when more than 5 hours of sleep is a luxury, it is hard to fit in all that should be done.

Negotiators on LULUCF met in an informal closed session yesterday and decided to meet only one more time on Saturday during these talks. The outcome of this meeting will be a decision to call on Parties for submissions early in the new year and then introduce draft legal text by the Chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol at the March meeting in Bonn. Our working group just finished developing some new ideas for accounting and we will now shop it around the various interested countries.

The first meeting on REDD has just started. ENGOs are hoping for a strong outcome here in Poznan: a decision text on everything but policies and incentives, which is appropriately figured into the negotiations on country commitments next year.

The most exciting news from yesterday was that Brazil announced its Climate Change Plan. The most prominent feature of the plan is a voluntary national target to reduce Amazon deforestation. There are questions being asked about whether or not the targets are strong enough, and about what Brazil will do about increasing emissions in other sectors, but the assumption of a national target by a developing country is a significant milestone in these negotiations.

Photo: Outside of the main Plenary Hall
Video: Click here for a BBC Clip about Amazon deforestation