COP17 Durban Climate Conference December 10

...it wouldn't feel like a proper COP if we stopped for sleep on the final night. After some calls to the UN Secretariat staff, and some pleading for patience with the security officials, it seems a few of us will be allowed to reman at the conference centre, which is handy, because it means we'll be able to bring you analysis of the new draft text that has just been released...

Here is the latest negotiating text for your perusal...

So what next? Now it's all eyes on the new Kyoto Protocol text, which is due to emerge any minute. Sources inside the indaba meeting say that countries including Saudi Arabia, China, Gambia and India are all emphasising the need to "see the whole package" and "the bigger picture" before engaging in negotiations...

...and sure enough, here is the full Kyoto Protocol text. If developing countries and emerging economies feel that this is sufficiently strong, then they may agree to work towards making their own commitments as part of the broader deal. 

Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network Europe, tells us that he isn't expecting country delegations to make any public or official announcements over night. The various blocs and alliances are now meeting in rooms across the conference venue to deliberate on the texts.

Just grabbed a few words with South Africa's lead negotiator, Alf Wills, as he rushed into a 3am meeting. While broadly happy with the progress, he's concerned by the Kyoto text:

In assessing the prospects of getting a deal, Mohamed Aslam, Environment Minister of the Maldives, tells me:

While delegates and ministers have been negotiating inside the conference centre, an OccupyCOP17 'vigil for climate justice' has been held outside. We joined activists and local community members...

In case you missed it earlier today, DemocracyNow! has some great footage of Anjali Appadurai's powerful address to the conference on behalf of youth delegates...

...we're still waiting for the Long-term Co-operative Action text to be released. The (further) delay is causing some observers to get a little nervous...

Michael Oko, Media Director at the World Resources Institute, has a suggestion for speeding things up...

French negotiator, Paul Watkinson, tells us we can expect the new Long-term Cooperative Action text in the next half an hour or so... maybe...

Tim Gore, Climate Change Policy Advisor at Oxfam International, gives us an update shortly after arriving back in the centre. Some good news to start:


On the Kyoto Protocol text, Tim suggests that the signals from China have been positive...


In conclusion... "I think we'll get a deal here. But I don't know what time exactly"

It's a brand new morning here in Durban. Some of us have slept -- a bit. Many others haven't. There's a sense of... well, let's say waiting, mixed with fatigue, some hope, some foreboding... in the conference center this morning. But mostly waiting.

The all-important LCA text was supposed to be released at 6 this morning, but it's 10 now and we're still waiting. A text was posted online and began circulating a little after 8, but it quickly became clear that that was not it. It's quite possible that the text was shown to the key negotiating groups and did not meet their expectations, and has gone back under the pen for some more work. And so we wait.

Some of the journalists are starting to get a bit punchy here, which can lighten the mood. Alessandro Vitelli, of Bloomberg News, has just tweeted a modern COP psalm -- in 160 character bursts -- to help pass the time...

I hate to challenge the faith credentials of my colleague, Jeffrey Allen, but I fear that he is confusing the Old and New Testaments. The excellent parody of the Christmas story by Alessandro Vitelli is based on St Matthew's Gospel, although I hesitate as it's a long time since I studied it.

Since we are all waiting around for more to happen, I might just take a moment to say that it's actually Luke's gospel you are thinking of.

moving swiftly on from our shaky theology, we've archived our live blog of yesterday's dramatic events. It's all there - video interviews, audioboos, footage of the flashmob, some very angry NGO leaders and no agreement. And there's a summary near the end.

here's a quick round-up of what big media is saying about the deadlocked Durban climate talks:

Mail & Guardian (South Africa): "The 194-nation process is facing, for the second time in two years, the prospect of a bustup, even as scientists warn against the mounting threat of disaster."

The Hindu reports that the EU is blaming India for the deadlock. The reaction from minister Jayanthi Natarajan: "She said India's demands had been 'extremely reasonable' and 'we want to know' how common but differentiated responsibility, equity, intellectual property rights and trade measures would figure in the treaty."

The Financial Times sportingly headlines the activist response - "Protests over climate agreement." It quotes Karl Hood, the AOSIS chair: “is this a COP or is this a corpse?

The BBC focuses on the shortage of time remaining: "there were warnings that ministers may have to leave - or may choose to leave - before signing off the package."

Neither the New York Times nor Huffington Post has anything at all to say on Friday's events.

The Guardian (UK) threw its big guns at live blog coverage, sponsored by Shell.

The plenary at 3pm GMT has just been cancelled. We've just heard from Jeff Allen that there is an emergency ministerial meeting going on. 

Right now also, a youth press conference is happening. The desperate urgency felt by young people who feel unrepresented is coming over loud and clear. 

One of the youth speakers makes it clear that they are not here to ask for what's perfect, they are here for what the science tells us is needed.

Another points out that Big Media is not covering this conference much even though it is so important to their future.

This situation has gotten quite complex this morning, and there's serious concern that very little will come out of this conference now, as we reach mid-afternoon on Overtime Day 1.

We're now into our second emergency high-level meeting of the day, as the heads of the regional groups are reportedly meeting with the conference president and UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, to try to figure out how to move things forward.

We're being told that the text that came out last night was unacceptable to the US and BASICs (unclear if that's all or just some of the BASICs). Then the LCA text out this morning stripped down the ambition on targets to reduce greenhouse gases, which was completely unacceptable to the poorer countries.

That led to an emergency ministerial this morning, which apparently fired a blank. So now they're trying to decide what to do next. It's not a very big room, and some of the larger UN security guards have been stationed outside, enforcing some very strict rules about who does and does not get in the room. Apparently it's 2 people per delegation, and some barred delegates were not very happy about that. There are plenty of bigger rooms around, so that must have been a strategic choice by the COP presidency, presumably to streamline the discussion.

There's been talk that some delegates may have to (read: "choose to") leave soon, so the clock is ticking.

Just spoke to Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council, sitting on a bench down the hall from the closed-door meeting trying to sort out a way forward. He told us that things are totally up in the air right now, and could head toward or away from a deal in the coming hours.


He expects things to continue for a while longer -- maybe even into the wee hours of tomorrow, and he's not impressed by the growing argument that time is running out.

The Guardian's environment editor also doesn't seem to be buying into the "we've got to go home" excuse we're expecting to hear more and more as the hours tick on.

Sing it with me...

So it looks like we're about to get some information... an "informal plenary" was just announced for 6pm local time -- that's about 9 minutes from now. Word is they'll probably just update us on what's been going on inside that "very secret indaba" these last 3 or 4 hours.

I'll take this moment to remind us how we got to this point.

So ace reporter on the spot Kelly Rigg just grabbed an interview with EU commissioner Connie Hedegaard and Karl Hood of Grenada, who represents the alliance of small island states. 

As we head into what will likely be the final hours of these marathon negotiations, Liz Gallagher of E3G accentuates the positive.

Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists gives us a clear overview of how we ended up here, at a crossroads where the whole conference could fall apart or move toward a progressive outcome. Worth looking at as we head into the final few hours of this conference.

From Switzerland, a surprising and refreshing comment on the document now before the delegates: they are willing to increase their commitment to 30% cuts by 2020 - but with a condition. My heart sank at these words - was Switzerland going to join the US on insisting on developing countries being legally bound at the same time as the big northern emitters? But no. They just wanted other developed countries to join with them.  

The EU has requested a 10 minute suspension, which has been granted by the Chair. Only a few hours left of this extra day, and the tension is rising. Will the talks have to go on for a second extra day? 

Some delegates from the south are attempting to remove weak phrases from the proposed extension of the Kyoto Protocol and replace them with phrases that raise the document's ambition. 

The Chair is now concluding this session on the KP. Ah, he has just declared it closed. 

The delegates will now go on to look at the LCA  - that's the Longterm Cooperative Action - proposal, in the next session. I've never seen a Chair look more relieved to end a session.