U.S. and EU Each Win 1 Fossil in Cancun, Canada Takes 2nd Place Again

Cancun, Mexico – The United States earned the 1 place Fossil of the Day, and its
first Fossil of the United Nations climate negotiations here, for trying to hide mention
of pollution reduction targets it is not on track to meet, not just for itself, but for all
developed countries. Canada won its fifth Fossil, and second 2nd place Fossil, for
literally inventing anti-coal regulation it does not have. The European Union, with a
3rd place Fossil and its first in Cancun, received the award for doing nothing to
address excess allowed emissions and then using that excess as a reason for not
wanting to continue the Kyoto Protocol. Canada remains the leading recipient of
Fossils in Cancun.

The Fossils as presented read:

"The European Union wins the 3rd place Fossil. For not engaging on specific tabled
solutions dealing with the AAU surplus (hot air), which threatens the environmental
integrity of the Kyoto protocol while at the same time using the lack of environmental
integrity as a condition to sign on to a second commitment period under the Kyoto
Protocol. Europe, get your act together!"

“Canada wins the 2nd place Fossil. It must be wonderful to live in the magical world
of Canada’s Environment Minister. In that enchanted land, a press release is the same
as a law, and ‘polluting for up to 45 more years’ means the same thing as ‘banning
dirty coal.’

Tragically, the rest of us are stuck with reality. And in reality, it’s a problem to tell
your Parliament and your media that you’ve published regulations to ban coal when
you’ve done nothing of the kind.For that little vacation from the truth, Canada takes home yet another Fossil of the Day.

"The United States wins the 1st place Fossil. After more than a week of relative
silence, the U.S.A. roared back to life in a most unfortunate way this morning. It
opposed reference to aggregate pollution reduction targets for developed countries of
25-40% from 1990 levels by 2020 in the 1.b.i. drafting group. Just because the U.S. is
not on track to make these necessary cuts is no excuse for obscuring the fact that it
and other developed countries need to get there. For trying to hide the obvious, the
U.S. wins the first place Fossil."
_____________________________________________________________________
About CAN: The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of roughly 500
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and
individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable
levels. www.climatenetwork.org

About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate
talks in 1999  in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations
climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action
Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress
in the negotiations in the last days of talks.