IATP's Anne Laure Constantin is blogging from Bangkok at the global climate talks.
Although the two week climate talks session in Bangkok formally ends today, specific discussions on how to reduce emissions from agriculture were essentially over yesterday. The outcomes of this week's agriculture discussions are now reflected in "non paper #17." The whole text is bracketed, as Uruguay and New Zealand (the two countries chairing the drafting group this week) were unable to produce a consensus among members.
As the process of drafting accelerated, many developing countries felt like they did not have enough capacity to follow the discussions, and not enough understanding of what the possible implications of this new part of the climate agreement would be. It seemed hard to reconcile the widespread feeling that agriculture should feature in the final agreement with the little time available until Copenhagen. UNFCCC members will resume consideration of the agriculture sectoral approach at the next negotiations session in Barcelona (Nov. 2–6).
