Fossil of the Day Awards

10 June 2010

The Climate Action Network (CAN), a coalition of over 500 NGOs worldwide, gives out 'Fossil of The Day' awards to the countries who perform the worst during the past day's negotiations at the UN climate change conference.

The awards given out on June 8, 2010 in Bonn, Germany were as follows: Saudia Arabia was awarded First Place.

Saudia Arabia received the 1st Place Fossil for ingeniously linking carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD). In today’s debate on REDD, there was general agreement on having additional public funding for REDD; the Saudis said they would only consent if there were funding windows for all other mitigation activities, including CCS. That would not only mean that they can “Compensate” for emissions from the oil they produce, but also get money for it, holding REDD hostage in the process.

Russia was awarded Second Place. Russia received the 2nd Place Fossil for very significant weakening of its emissions reduction commitment from 25% to 15% of 1990 levels if Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) is not counted. The Russian president announced the 25% target as unconditional, but the Russian delegation converted this to being conditional in yesterday’s Numbers+LULUCF contact group. In addition, Russia’s proposal to account for LULUCF would hide huge quantities of emissions.

About the fossils:

The Fossil-of-the-day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, also in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), a worldwide network of over 500 non-governmental organisations, vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks. www.climatenetwork.org

BONN, GERMANY 2010-06-08