it seems confusion is ruling large at the Copenhagen talks. this is all stuff that should have been sorted out months, if not years before these talks began. to have different proposal texts appear with 193 countries present with such a diversity of interests, even if they all agree on climate change, and with few hard numbers to go with makes this real tricky. it's hard to see a lot of success come out of this except some general agreement at best. REDD still stands out as the one with the best shot of getting good momentum.
The extent of the disagreement was exposed by the publication yesterday of two draft agreements, neither of which contained clear numbers or language on any of the most contentious issues, despite two years of negotiations before the summit.
The US refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol has forced negotiators to work on two separate texts and there is now little chance of the twin-track process producing a single document. The negotiators from 193 countries are hoping that the early arrival at the summit of several leaders next Wednesday, including Gordon Brown, will help to break the deadlock."
