Mattias Söderberg's Page

Tomorrow a new round of climate negotiations begins. The meeting, which takes place in Bonn, Germany, is the first meeting since the climate summit last year, COP18. Every time parties meet, they have a chance to move the talks forward, to increase ambition and to show the world that climate change is taken serious. What can we expect from the coming week in Bonn?

Not much, I am afraid…

Even if there is an agreement from COP18, many parties are disappointed. Ambition was…

2012 is over and we can look back on a year with far too many climate related disasters. During the summer US was hit hard by droughts, effecting food prices all around world. Later on the Caribbean, and the US, was hit by the hurricane Sandy, with huge effects on both lives and infrastructure. The year ended with another horrifying storm, as typhoon Bopha hit Philippines, affecting thousands of people.



Even though 2012 taught us about the effects of climate change, the climate…

When parties left Durban five months ago they could return home with an agreement. COP17 was presented as a diplomatic success and a breakthrough in global climate talks. When parties met again in Bonn, two weeks ago, they had to interpret what was really decided in Durban, and that has not been easy.

The past two weeks of negotiations have been difficult, no doubt. There are very different views on how to proceed, and while talks in Bonn centered on increased ambitions, it is very…

Trust between parties has reached a historic low  

No agreement about how to proceed

After nearly two weeks of negotiations parties have still not agreed on an agenda for how to take the Durban agreement forward. The dispute, which has led to new fronts in the climate talks, dividing developing countries, is focused on how to approach mitigation actions up to 2020. China, supported by a group of bigger developing countries want…