Adios, amigos

11 December 2010

It's shortly after 4am here in Mexico. Our team has been tracking the negotiations' nail-biting twists and turns through the night.

We spent Friday waiting for a rumoured new draft agreement. Several delayed press conferences, public negotiating sessions and assurances from Mexico's foreign minister herself later, we were still waiting.

When the draft text was finally released around 6pm, it was time for a detailed analysis by our specialists.

Several countries raised concerns about it during an open debate in the main conference hall.

The main criticisms were that the provisions were far too weak and would condemn the world to an unacceptable increase in temperature. But everyone was so keen to avoid a repeat of the disastrous Copenhagen talks that these concerns were sidelined to eventually reach an agreement.

Only Bolivia stood up to demand a better deal - the strong and fair agreement needed to really tackle dangerous climate change.

We believe the talk's outcome is very weak and extremely worrying in places. But at least it gives us something to build on before the next round of talks in Durban, South Africa, in 2011.

There are some positive developments, such as a vital new Global Climate Fund to give developing countries the money they need to tackle climate change. But so far, the pledges of funding are very far off the sums required.

And unfortunately the World Bank has been given a role in overseeing the Fund. This isn't good news, as the Bank is one of the world's largest lenders for polluting fossil fuel projects.

Here's a more detailed analysis of the agreement.

As for me - adios, amigos.

Thanks for reading.

Henry Rummins is a communications and media officer at Friends of the Earth. He's reporting from the climate talks in Cancun as part of the Friends of the Earth International delegation.