Thread:Comments:Second round of Bonn UN Climate Change negotiations continue/Comments from feedback form - ""The AWG-LCA is the negotiatin..."/reply

I think I have a general understanding of what's going on right now. But the UN is a very slow body with lots of moving parts so I may have missed something. The LCA has many things to do, but it sounds like you already have the gist of it. For a graphic rundown of what the LCA will be discussing please see Link and related material at Link. The AWGs are negotiating (and will be in the next meeting, I believe) what the text of the COP16 negotiative text will be. There's the pre-COP negotiations, and they come to a conclusion, that conclusion is then debated and modified at COP. The idea is at the end of COP to have a legally binding treaty that a majority of the countries agree to, but as with COP15 we see that is very difficult. Which leads on to the next point...

Regarding the quote from de Alba: He was referring to a pessimistic attitude that Yvo de Beor (current climate secretariat, who is stepping down) and other like Connie Hedegaard have when addressing the probability of the UNFCCC agreeing to a binding treaty, period. They both have expressed strong doubts about being able to pass anything in the future that will have meaningful effects and have almost written off COP16 before it even starts. Since the next COP is in Mexico, de Alba is (rightfully so) a bit sore about those comments.