US sabotages negotiations on draft REDD text
Latest update from REDD Monitor reported today that discussions late into the night on Monday (14 December 2009) at the Copenhagen COP15 UN Climate Change negotiations made the REDD text worse. The main culprits were the US and Colombia. The US won two prizes in Climate Action Network International's Fossil of the Day on Day 8 of Copenhagen: first prize for blocking the inclusion of emissions from aviation and shipping in the negotiations; and joint third prize with Colombia for "moving the process backwards on the REDD text".
The latest REDD text (dated 15 December 2009) can be downloaded here: FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/L.7/Add.6). The latest REDD-Monitor update includes an overview of some of the best (and the worst) reporting on the REDD discussions in Copenhagen. (Please note that these media reports came out before the latest version of the REDD text was produced - and that the REDD text linked above is not the final version. Some text is still in square brackets.) Some of the the worst reporting came from the New York Times, on 15 December 2009, shortly after the US negotiators carried out a hatchet job on the draft REDD text, which reads: "Negotiators have all but completed a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests, and in some cases, other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change."
