United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

It’s too early to talk about the end-game in the 17th conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks that are underway in Durban. But amid the shifting diplomatic sands of talks and texts, there are signs that some of the ground is starting to solidify.

James Mayers, the head of IIED's natural resources group, discusses key themes being discussed at the UN Climate Negotiations’ forest day in Durban, South Africa.

This video update from Saleemul Huq, Saleemul Huq, IIED’s Senior Fellow in IIED's Climate Change group, discusses the two-day side event organised by IIED taking place this weekend in Durban.

Closed negotiations have begun at the UN Climate Change conference. Parties are looking at two key issues behind closed doors: national adaptation plans and loss and damage.

“When talking to the converted...we’re looking for depth. When we’re talking to others... we need simple messages” and to tell stories that people can relate to, says Liz Carlile, Director of Communications at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

In the COP17 side events “we see a lot of hope, solutions and activities at the side events of a positive nature which completely bely the negative vibes coming out of the negotiations themselves,” says Saleemul Huq, IIED’s Senior Fellow in the Climate Change group.

I was one among the many sleep-deprived observers present at the birth of the Kyoto Protocol, during the early hours of a cold December morning in 1997. I cannot claim to have formed an immediate emotional attachment. Along with many others, I despaired already at the weakling’s lack of ambition, and numerous defects (politely called loopholes) that rendered it a joke on the planet. It was optimistically proclaimed a “first small step”, implying that better would follow once the world “warmed up” to the idea of living in a carbon-constrained world.

Saleemul Huq, IIED’s Senior Fellow in the Climate Change group, reports from Durban on "theatre from the Canadians".

In his second video update Saleemul Huq, IIED’s Senior Fellow in the Climate Change group, comments on the UN climate change opening ceremony with President Jacob Zuma and on hopes that South African political leadership “can bring [together] what seemingly look like very different points of view”.

The first video update from the UN Climate negotiations, IIED’s Senior Fellow in the Climate Change group, Saleemul Huq, outlines the two major issues to be discussed at the COP17.