Is the IPCC imploding ?

jackdog · Jun 18, 2013

sounds like a power struggle going on

A debilitating row with Russia at UN climate talks this week exposed a fundamental flaw in how decisions are taken -- the entire system balanced precariously on an ill-defined notion of consensus, observers say.

While furious with Russia for allowing the issue to stop important work at a meeting in Bonn, negotiators agree the decision-making procedure must be clarified before any long-term damage is caused.

By tradition, decisions in the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) are made on the basis of "consensus" -- a term that implies common resolve by its 195 parties.

The principle is conceptually fuzzy and remains undefined in the organisation's rulebook, yet it was the tool that created the Kyoto Protocol and binds the community of nations to signing an ambitious new pact on carbon emissions in 2015.

"Consensus is considered important since this makes the likelihood of implementation or compliance with what has been agreed larger, and demonstrates respect for the principle of state sovereignty," Louise van Schaik of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in the Netherlands told AFP.

But a bust-up at a low-key meeting in Germany this past week raised stark questions as to whether the practice -- at least in its current form -- can endure as the bill for climate change mounts and countries fight harder over how to apportion it.

"Since the beginning we've been sailing along in a bit of a legal grey zone where things are done by consensus without anybody really knowing what consensus means," one insider told AFP.
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Is the IPCC imploding ?

jackdog Well-Known Member

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Is the IPCC imploding ?

jackdog Well-Known Member

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