Cool COP Morning: Clouds Rolling In

I promise, all of my headlines won’t be weather related. We all know Cancún is a gorgeous place, especially when compared to dreary Copenhagen. I’ll get over it. But, after a day of optimism, here’s the news gathering over the UN climate change conference this morning:

We’ll start with a plug for news that hasn’t happened yet: Sarene Marshall, managing director for The Nature Conservancy’s global climate change team will be live-chatting about the COP with the Washington Post today at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Feel free to submit your questions now and tune in at noon for all the fun.

Japan has reiterated that it is unwilling to sign on to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, calling such a move “meaningless and inappropriate” as long as it doesn’t include the United States and China. Japan’s refusal was echoed by strong misgivings from Canada and Russia on a revival of Kyoto. (Mother Jones)

To find out why the Kyoto Protocol is so important to these negotiations, watch this video of our own Duncan Marsh explaining the details of the protocol and how it relates to the Cancun negotiations.

Could the U.S. walk out of Cancún? That’s the rather breathless headline from the Financial Times energysource blog this morning. The blog notes rather pessimistic comments from Todd Stern, the chief climate envoy from the United States, who told  journalists stateside that negotiations with the Chinese will result in “progress across the range of issues or we’re not going to see much progress.” In other words, it’s all or nothing.

The comments have the FT wondering if the U.S. will be presented with a final package from China that negotiators will then have to reject as unpalatable to a newly conservative Washington. (Financial Times)

Google continues to highlight the effects of climate change at the COP (Conference of the Parties), unveiling a series of Google Earth tours on climate change. The tours show how people are coping with climate change, joining together to reduce emissions by protecting forests and how climate-driven ocean acidification is harming the world’s coral reefs. (Google Earth)

Finally, Grist notes that while negotiators debate how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Cancún, cities across the United States are getting down to the business of adapting to the changing weather patterns and rising sea levels caused by climate change. (Grist)

(Image: COP16 name plates. Courtesy of Flickr user UN Climate Talks. used under a Creative Commons license.)