6 December 2005climnet.org
ItalyThe first prize for today's Fossil of the day award is given to Italy, for its intervention at a side-event. While illustrating different emissions scenarios, Italy's Director General of the Ministry of Environment stated that technological advances in fossil fuels, emission intensity and nuclear, as well as investments in "gap" technologies like carbon capture and storage were needed to reach the goal of greenhouse gases stabilisation.Italy then went on saying that it doesn't see the right attention on these kind of investments here and expects more positive results from the implementation of the G8's Gleneagles Plan than from any conclusion coming out of Montreal. Italy then concluded by affirming that the Gleneagles Plan, rather than the UNFCCC, should be the reference for setting new commitments for developed and developing countries.
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Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia wins the Second Fossil of the day for blocking the adoption of the compliance mechanism of the Marrakech Accords. First, the Saudis demanded that parties agree to take on a redundant and time-wasting amendment process. Now, they are also calling for "approval" rather than "adoption" of the compliance measures. Will these changes actually improve compliance as the Saudis claim? Of course not! Will these useless complications divert time and resources from moving forward on Kyoto at the conference? Absolutely !
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USAThe United States win the third Fossil of the day for intervening to object to the word "dialogue" in the President's draft COP decision text. The fossilized objection of the U.S. makes one wonder how many times does the world need to hear "No" from the Bush Administration before we move on without them.
