UN Climate Change Conference

UN climate chief: No secret Mexican climate text

By Li Jing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-12-04 09:06

CANCUN, Mexico - United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres on Friday denied the existence of a secret Mexican text, after rumors circulated at the two-week climate conference about a text that would allegedly end the Kyoto Protocol.

"Let me be unequivocal, the text that does exist is the text everybody has seen," Figueres said at a press conference Friday afternoon, referring to the draft negotiation text prepared by the working group chair of Long-term Cooperative Action, one of two tracks of the UN’s climate negotiations.

The text, first prepared in October at the Tianjin climate negotiations, has been updated by the chair to better facilitate the ongoing negotiations, and will be published on Saturday, according to Figueres.

"A text will be released tomorrow which builds upon all the negotiations over the previous week, which were open and transparent,” said Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director of Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "There is nothing secret about these processes or the text that will be released."

The Mexican government has done a fantastic job organizing the conference in Cancun, Schmidt said.

"They have had an open door policy for any country that wants to provide input," he continued. "They are taking input from all sides and trying to craft an agreement which can meet those sometimes different positions. That is how the host is supposed to manage such a complicated negotiation."