Copenhagen Day 10: U.S. Fossil of the Day winning streak unbroken

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First of all, as if there wasn't enough confusion and despair here in Copenhagen, the Danes may have thrown yet another wrench into the COP-15 process. After replacing Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard as the presiding officer of COP-15 [2], Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has apparently introduced a new 'Danish text' [3] into the negotiations -- essentially circumventing the established negotiating channels and texts prepared in an all-night session last night. Here’s a tense exchange between a Chinese delegate and Rasmussen [4].

Rasmussen's move not only undermines the principle of transparency that should underpin these negotiations: It also adds fuel to the fire of mistrust that developing countries already feel towards the process, and reinforces their perception (not without reason) that developed nations are trying to bully them into taking on a greater share of the burden of reducing global warming pollution. The Danes need to return to their role as facilitators of this conference and stop putting their thumb on the scale on behalf of wealthy nations.

Then, I captured a side event panel featuring Dan Reicher from Google, Dan Foster from the Blue Green Alliance, and John Holdren, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where we presented the petition to President Obama that 1Sky supporters joined over 575,000 Americans in signing [5]:

And finally, I joined Hunter Cutting in stepping in for Ben Wickler as the fabulous Avaaz host for the Fossil of the Day [6] awards (as I mentioned in an earlier post [7], Avaaz and many others have been locked out of the Bella Center). Here’s video of the ceremony [8], attended by a throng of world media:

And here are the results from today’s Fossil of the Day ceremony [8]:

2nd Place—The Umbrella Group

To the Umbrella Group, for coming up empty on long-term financing just when these talks need it most. It doesn't get much more anemic than today's Umbrella Group statement on long-term finance, which contained not a single number -- but did prominently feature the role of carbon markets. The Umbrella Group represents all of the industrialized Annex 1 countries other than the European Union and refused to provide developing countries with the support they need through long-term finance agreements. Umbrellas: Copenhagen needs you to step up and recognize a scale of public financing in line with what's really needed, and to tell us how you plan to provide that support. It's way too late for vague platitudes.

1st Place—The United States

In a truly remarkable tour de farce, the United States picks up its THIRD STRAIGHT First Place Fossil of the Day Award. And they had done such a good job last week with their clean Fossil record. This First Place Fossil Award is bestowed upon the United States for having inserted a proposed “X %” as an alternative to the science based targets currently in the text. This mysterious “X” would represent voluntary pledges by parties in the agreement, replacing concrete binding emissions reductions. At a time when critical action and strong, concrete terms are what’s needed most, the U.S. is proposing we move as far as possible in the other direction. One superlative deserves another, so we thought it fitting that the U.S. end up with highest dishonor given to the government that does the most to block progress towards achieving the fair, ambitious and binding treaty that the world expects. A hearty un-congratulations to you.

I’m off to meet Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, who took over for Van Jones at Green For All. Stand by for tomorrow’s report piecing things together from the outside, as NGO observers and advocates are almost entirely excluded.