COP President resigns

• 14 years ago (2009-12-17)
• David Flin

Europe 1068

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COP President Connie Hedegaard resigned on 16 December, saying that the arrival of so many heads of state and government has meant that the negotiations should be presided over by someone of equal status. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has stepped in as COP President. Hedegaard has already left the Danish government, and is due to become the new EU Climate Commissioner, and it has been suggested that she has not enjoyed the full confidence of the Danish Government as the talks grew ever more fractious.

Earlier today, the two Ad-Hoc Working Groups, established to negotiate post-2012 framework agreements under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol completed their work, but failed to agree on any of the key issues. As a result, the reports from the two groups are being forwarded in their current form, with blanks, brackets and options, to the COP and CMP respectively, for further consideration. John Ashe, Chair of the AWG-KP negotiations, said his group had unfortunately been unable to reach agreement on emissions reduction targets. It is understood that the AWG-KP will be requesting more time for negotiators to try to reach agreement on technical issues, leaving the more controversial decisions such as post-2012 reduction targets for their ministers to agree.