Quick Stop on Durban COP-December 3

EKO ECO Guest Blogger on December 5, 2011 Comment

Closed SBSTA talks went late into the night as negotiators reworked the SBSTA language related to safeguards and reference levels after Brazil moved to push such talk back to the next SBSTA meeting. The most recent text, which came out Thursday morning, calls for the establishment of reference levels that can be adjusted in the future, but Brazil said it couldn't sign off on anything relating to reference levels until interlinked issues are dealt with - such as agreement on how to anticipate drivers of deforestation.

Several parties expressed outrage at Brazil's stance, and accused them of deliberately trying to sabotage talks.

"They had plenty of time to raise these issues," said one party. "Why bring it up now?"

Nils Hermann Ranum, of the Rainforest Foundation Norway, even speculated that Brazil was trying to sabotage REDD globally to benefit their own REDD market, which is fairly advanced.