Durban Climate Meeting Drags On—Durbanhagen Anyone?

Durban, South Africa – The 17th conference of the parties (COP-17) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was supposed end on Friday, December 9. However, COP-17 is still hung up on three main issues: (1) will countries agree to a "roadmap" for future negotiations being pushed by the European Union that commits them to begin hammering out  "a Protocol or other legally binding instruments or arrangements for the period after 2020" and that would apply to all countries; (2) will the Europeans agree to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in which they cut further their greenhouse gas emissions; and (3) will the COP launch a Green Climate Fund designed to redistribute billions in climate change aid from rich countries to poor ones.

The latest rumors are that the conference could go into Sunday morning or that it could be simply adjourned with a decision to continue discussions at a meeting in Bonn in May. If the meeting is adjourned until later that would represent a bigger "collapse" than the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen. Too early to say which way it's going.