Busybusybusy...trying to prepare my presentation for the Climate Law Symposium for tomorrow. However, I still don't know exactly how long I can present, what the other presenters will talk about, etc. I hope to finally hear this today....Despite being a bit stressed for that, things are going well.

Yesterday was a historic day, with the Marrakesh Accords being adopted without any problems. Congrats to the Canadian government for that. However, the COP(MOP) would have surely failed if there could not have even been agreement on that here, I think. It was nice to be in the negotiation room when they were adopted. A bit excitement...is Saudi-Arabia gonna make a problem or not....in the end no, luckily. Yesterday, there were also some contentious issues on the agenda, including the inclusion of avoided deforestation in developing countries, compliance and future commitments. On avoided deforestation, Papua New Guinea proposed to include this, as deforestation causes 20-25% of global carbon emissions. Seems sensible, and all parties were in favor of discussing this, but it has to be cautioned that avoiding deforestation through for example the CDM should not lead to easy credits for Annex I countries. About compliance, there was the first clash between the Saudis and the rest, mainly the EU. The EU merely wants a Decision to confirm the compliance procedure, whereas the Saudis insist on an amendment, which could cause a strange situation, as it has to be ratified again. My guess is that a decision will be taken here, with the possibility of an amendment left open. Finally, there were some initial discussion on Art. 3.9 of the Kyoto Protocol, which calls on parties to start discussions on future commitments of Annex I parties here in 2005. Unfortunately, I missed the debate yesterday afternoon, but I hope to attend a group this evening.

Yesterday, I also followed some events on the reform of the Clean Development Mechanism. It's becoming more and more clear that Annex I countries are not achieving their Kyoto targets without implementing new CDM projects. This means that all of a sudden many voices are raised calling for the streamlining of the CDM. Besides the more basic point that the Kyoto Protocol calls for supplementarity of projects abroad, meaning that most of the work should be done at home, the danger of streamlining is that important elements of projects, such as consultation of local communities and environmental impact assessments are sidelined. Of course, from a business perspective, streamlining is good, but the countries should be wary of pushing it too hard.

Well, more than enough about the negotiations again. Back to the presentation again!