By Ed King
UN climate talks chief Christiana Figueres has announced she has secured funding for an extra round of talks to be held in Bangkok, running from August 30 to September 5.
Nearly 4.8 million Euros was needed to host this extra session – and on her Twitter account Figueres thanked Qatar, Norway, Germany, UK, Japan, Sweden and the EU for stumping up the cash.
The news will relieve many observers of the talks – which ended last week in Bonn with little having been resolved.
A leading climate diplomat told RTCC the two weeks in Germany had left him feeling ‘sad’. Others were more forceful, with EU negotiators describing an unpleasant atmosphere overshadowed by ‘bickering’.
The extra session will provide an opportunity for the Durban Platform Working Group to move forward – the parties could only agree an agenda before the Bonn talks closed.
A framework for an extension to the Kyoto Protocol will also be a key point of interest, as will the future of the Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (LCA).
The USA says the LCA should finish in Qatar, come whatever, whilst China and some developing countries say it should close when its business is finished.
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