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Elizabeth May at COP20

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Elizabeth May will be attending the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP20) in Lima, Peru as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

CoP20 intends to build frameworks to combat the dangers of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Conference includes 195 parties, ENGOs, and media, drawing in thousands of participants aimed at an international response to climate change. CoP20 is an especially important session preceding CoP21 in Paris 2015, where the UNFCCC hopes to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate action.

We'll be posting content from Elizabeth throughout the meeting. Make sure you come back for new blogs, photos and videos from COP20.

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Down to the wire – Was the Lima decision better than nothing?

As you likely have heard, the COP20 talks wrapped earlier this morning at around 3:30 AM. The deal was done in seconds following the break for countries to review a new text tabled by the President just before midnight. He then suspended the session to give parties an hour to read the new draft. The final ADP decision is four pages long. It should be understood not as a new “deal” for the climate, but as a 12-month work plan leading to COP21.

The COP that would not die...

Okay, I know that sounds like a Bruce Willis movie and my apologies... but this COP has achieved that dreamlike-nightmarish quality that obscures what day it is, what time it is. So apologies. I was surprised to check and see that my last blog had been late Thursday. We have been in nearly constant negotiations since then, without a final outcome as I write this at 7 pm Saturday night.

Fanfare and backrooms

As the available hours for negotiations wind down, we have entered the usual phase at such negotiations of high-level speeches extolling negotiators to finish the work and deliver on our obligations to future generations while the negotiators themselves seem no closer to the finish line than they were days ago.

Post by Green Party of Canada - Parti vert du Canada.

Climate march in Lima and fresh ideas in talks

The COP20 talks are taking place in an unlikely venue - a military base outside of town. Despite the reporting of its carbon footprint, being built from scratch to accommodate ten thousand people, it is working well as a venue. Depending on your viewpoint, it could be seen as bizarre or appropriate that the COP is ringed around by a military training obstacle course.

Canada’s Dismal Presence in Lima at COP20

Leona Aglukkaq has been in Lima at COP20 arriving on the same flight I took to Peru. She was in first class so I didn’t see her, but I was reliably informed by a friend in the front cabin that she was there.

Post by Green Party of Canada - Parti vert du Canada.

Climate talks at national and sub-national levels

Sorry. That has to be my least inspired blog title ever. Chalk it up to being immersed in UN-speak all day. The morning plenary dealt with two newly tabled documents -- a draft decision from the co-chairs of the ADP working group (Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Plan of Action) and a draft text of potential “elements of the draft treaty.”

Climate negotiations... down to the wire

By the time you read this, I will be in Lima, Peru at the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). When I say we are “down to the wire,” many Island Tides readers

Blog: What's at Stake in Lima

I am in Lima, Peru for the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COPs within the UNFCCC are the on-going process working to develop a...