It Has Finally Started: COP16 in Cancun

Published 30th November 2010 - 5 comments - 2774 views -

One year after the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, activists, scientists, journalists, climate experts and environment ministers are all gathering in Cancun, Mexico for COP16. The event started yesterday and will last for twelve days, unless there is an earlier accord.

In amongst the crowd will be the 16 winning bloggers from the TH!NK4 competition, who will be joining the meeting on the 5^th of Demember. We are looking forward to their contributions from Mexico, which you will be able to read here.
COP16 was officially opened by the President of host country Mexico, Felipe Calderón:

A lot has been said about this year’s meeting and the general consensus is that not too much should be expected agreement-wise. Instead the Cancun gathering is being tipped as an important stepping stone towards the COP17 gathering in Johannesburg in 2011 and the COP18 in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. Since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 expires in December 2012, these last two COP meetings have to pave the way for a new protocol that sets clear standards for the worldwide reduction of CO2 emissions in the future.

One issue that will be important during this year’s meeting is how developing nations can be assisted financially to help them combat and reduce their CO2 emissions. Not an easy task, seeing as developing nations are more than skeptical about the way Danish representatives drew up a draft final accord last year without any consultation. This erosion of trust will have to be dealt with first, before we can expect any encouraging outcomes.

Along with the regular updates from the TH!NK blogging crew, plenty of news on the summit will be available online. Check out in particular some of the livestreams, such as UNFCC and this one from OneClimateChannel in cooperation with the climate change activist platform TCKTCKTCK.

 

Make sure you stay updated on many issues that will be discussed, and feedback your thoughts on what is being discussed in a new blogpost or on our community.

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Johan Knols
Editor in Chief

 

 

 

Johan Knols / Editor-in-Chief
Utrecht


Born and bred in The Netherlands, I have a passion for nature, wildlife, Developing World and blogging. After studying Dutch Law for a while, I moved on to educate myself in the field of tourism. After completing my studies, I changed small Holland for the continent of Africa where I lived and worked for a total of 16 years. After returning to the land of the windmills I have kept myself busy blogging on everything related to African safaris. Being one of the Th!nkers of 'TH!NK3:Development', I now act as the editor in chief for 'TH!NK4:Climate Change'.

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