Lots happened today – and is still going on in the conference centre right now, with youth from around the world doing a sit-in, in the middle of the conference centre. You can see live blogging from the sit in at the global youth climate movement blog ItsGettingHotinHere.

In terms of what happened in the negotiations here, here is a summary of the key points. The LCA (the negotiation track on long-term cooperative action) finished negotiating at 6am this morning after 2 years negotiating. Algeria summed it up when it said, “I’m not really sure what we are agreeing”. They didn’t get far because they didn’t get the political mandate to be able to negotiate from world leaders.

There are a few notable things in the text: the draft has gone in the right direction on finance but certainly isn’t there yet. They’re setting up new fund for finance and it won’t go through World Bank or GEF. The existing adaptation fund under the Kyoto Protocol will become the new funding mechanism.
Bunker fuel (aviation and shipping) levies got up, and there’s wording that ensures  the industries wont be self-regulating on this aspect. But all the big issues were put up to ministers – hundreds of issues went to Ministers so will be very difficult for them.

Today, the Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard resigned, and was replaced by the Danish Prime Minister as Chair of the Conference. This scared developing countries – they don’t trust the Danish Prime Minister due to the leaked “Danish Text” – the draft of Presidency Document that came out last week. Developing countries said they will not accept a text from the Danish President. This means the text will have to come from officials – which will be a bit of a mess.

More info to come – and in a few hours our entire team starts a 24 hour fast in solidarity with the climate justice fasters – including Anna and Paul from Australia – who have been fasting for 42 days on water alone.