"Virtually no one should be surprised to learn that climate talks currently underway in Bonn, Germany -- the latest venue for the decades-old and largely fruitless pursuit of international agreement on global warming action -- are descending into chaos."
"This time around, Russia, along with Ukraine and Belarus, are facing off with other nations and effectively blocking movement on negotiations fundamental to forward progress -- including how to provide financial assistance for poorer nations grappling with the worst impacts of a warming planet.
The Slavic negotiators are apparently miffed about their treatment during talks in Doha, Qatar, last year, where they say their concerns over extending the Kyoto Protocol -- currently the world's only obligatory climate agreement, albeit one that excluded the largest polluters and has proved largely ineffectual -- were ignored. The current impasse threatens to undermine the Bonn talks altogether, sending the tireless caravan of negotiators to Warsaw, Poland -- site of this year's annual United Nations climate fête -- with little to show in the way of agreement on anything at all."
Tom Zeller Jr. reports for the Huffington Post June 12, 2013.
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