COP18 Officially Past Schedule

It's now past midnight in Doha and the conference is officially behind on schedule. The text from the ADP Working Group; the negotiations on the workplan for the 2015 agreement about the post 2020 protocol to succeed Kyoto, has been agreed on and these negotiations closed.

However, this was the very least controversial negotiations track, and the texts proposed has more or less only been about how much different principles should be discussed in the coming year, not on which they are. Some last minute drama ensued as China was not allowed to speak, and when China was heard, the country rejected the text when everyone thought the text had passed.

However, now it seems that the text is properly passed. This means we are still waiting for the LCA Working Group, that has been working during the last five years on long-term cooperation, to agree on its final outcome text. Burning issues have been finance and adaptation. It still remains to be seen where compromise will be reached, but in Durban it was decided this working group must close here in Doha, so it likely will.

The same is true for the Kyoto Protocol Working Group, which has worked the last five years on the second commitment period. Both texts from the working groups will be decided on in the full plenary as soon as nations have reached agreement in the working groups.

Whenever that may be.