Nature reporter Jeff Tollefson is at the United Nations climate summit from 2-6 November 2009 in Barcelona, Spain. It is the last negotiating period before the seminal climate summit in Copenhagen in December. You can read his full reports over at our In the Field blog.

Big heads of state

I arrived at the conference this morning only to encounter global leaders with unusually large heads pulling funny money out of one box labelled “aid” and putting it into another labelled “climate change.” It was a short stunt by Oxfam – and just one of many put on by various activist groups each day – intended to raise awareness of the danger that rich countries will simply reduce development aid as they increase funding for adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries have made this a central part of their platform going into Copenhagen – any climate financing must be in addition to existing development aid. …more…

Safeguarding primary forests under REDD

And now back to the case of the missing 10-word phrase, which says that any payments for reduced deforestation should include “safeguards against the conversion of natural forests to forest plantations.” Just for amusement, here’s the gist in UN climate speak: It was in “Non-paper No. 11” but was left out of “Non-paper No.18” when negotiators gathered for a final session before departing Bangkok last month. …more…

Nature Geo stirs things up with deforestation analysis

This afternoon has been all about deforestation. Environmentalists are busy tracking the debate about an 10-word phrase – mysteriously deleted at the last talks in Bangkok – that is designed to prevent natural forests from being converted into plantations. But I’ll deal with that issue in my next post and move on to a Nature Geoscience commentary that has caused quite a buzz here in Barcelona by downgrading the relative contribution of carbon emissions from deforestation. …more…

Afternoon updates from the Africans, EU

Following up on yesterday’s agreement, the leader of the African Group said during an afternoon press conference he is “guardedly optimistic” about the talks going forward. But Sudan’s Lumumba Di-Aping refused to give any ground on developing countries’ demands that rich countries curb emissions by 40 percent by 2020. …more…