Friday, December 2, 2011

Climate Change Activists Prepare For March In Durban

In Durban, negotiators have wrapped up their first week of climate change talks with little progress to report. Under a plan drafted four years ago, the talks were to have agreed on a new round of greenhouse gas reductions under the Kyoto Protocal, before existing obligations expire in 2012. But with Canada, Japan, and Russia announcing they won't sign up for such a deal – and the U.S. never having ratified Kyoto in the first place – the odds of that seem slim to none. The European Union—the staunchest defender of Kyoto among the developed nations—has retreated to pushing forward a “roadmap” – a plan to produce binding commitments by 2015. At this point, all major plans on the table fall far short of what the world's most vulnerable nations say they need. So tomorrow, thousands of activists from around the world will gather for a mass demonstration. Brian Edwards-Tiekert has more.