Yvo de Boer: all articles

A rolling post, updating the tortuous path towards a Bali agreement. Update 1: a tentative agreement that will be debated further, 8am tomorrow morning. Update 2 (the next morning): the agreement begins to unwind. Update 3: misprint in the text! Update 4: farce. Update 5: Shameful scenes - Yvo de Boer in tears. Update 6: Just when it seemed impossible, Bali roadmap agreed. Update 7: De Boer returns.

"I am very concerned by the pace of things," was Yvo de Boer's sobering assessment of the state of play at lunchtime today.

De Boer is worried that so many issues are now linked that the ‘whole house of cards could fall to pieces' as the negotiations get frenzied over the next couple of days. There's also a chance that inadequate logistics could play a role...

Sure enough, Yvo de Boer used today's press conference to underline that the 25-40% emissions target for the group of industrialized countries is still in the Bali road map.

The problem with being in the Bali bubble is that it's far too easy to lose all sense of proportion. You get hooked on the minutiae of the negotiations and, like any addict, forget about the things that really matter.

Rumours flash from delegations through NGOs to the media (and then bounce right back again). What's true now, may not be in twenty minutes' time. And the problem gets worse the longer the talks go on. Too many people cooped up together, staying up too late (either working or drinking, or sometimes both), going stir crazy, far from home...

So we're off.

Ten thousand or so delegates are beginning to struggle through accreditation. Electricians are rushing to finish wiring up the convention centre. And the vanguard of an army of a thousand or so journalists have set up their laptops in the tent that will be their home for duration of the Bali meeting.

Proceedings started with the first of a hundred or so press conferences that we are threatened with over the next fortnight. Yvo de Boer, the UNFCCC's Secretary General, was the main draw.