Though the outcome is uncertain, negotiations are finally progressing. By Kriton Arsenis

The replacement of Dutch Yvo De Boer with Cost Rican Christiana Figueres as the new UNFCC Executive Secretary and Denmark with Mexico as the country hosting the conference, makes a difference in the climate change negotiations. The sense of trust which had collapsed in Copenhagen has to a significant degree been re-established in Cancun. From the first week, issues which have been in deadlock for years have started being solved. The negotiations are being freed from the details and are focusing on the most important issues at hand.

The negotiating texts that the Mexican Presidency has submitted form a commonly accepted basis for discussion. The Mexicans have avoided the mistakes of the Danish Presidency, which regarded the outcome of Copenhagen as a decision to be taken by the most powerful States of the planet and negotiated behind closed doors. Mexico is implementing an open system of negotiations, which is transparent and all inclusive. This is therefore the most positive outcome from Copenhagen; that the developed countries realized that even the poorest country on Earth needs to be heard if the sought after agreement is to be achieved.

This also entails a cost. The lowest common denominator and solutions on which all countries can agree on are not sufficient to combat Climate Change. Achievements from previous stages of the negotiations regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, the protection of biodiversity and many other issues of environmental importance within the proposed solutions for tackling Climate Change are being lost. The texts of the agreement contain an ever growing number of flexible terms of commitments which focus on the creation of financial products and are inadequate for the tackling of Climate Change.

However, this could be less important then not achieving an agreement. Maybe many of us did indeed envision a complete change of our world through this agreement and have asked for things that are hard to digest by all the countries of our planet. The important thing is that all countries realize that we need to act together in order to combat this man-made threat. If we manage to reach an agreement, reality will force us to gradually correct any inadequacies this agreement may entail.

In Cancun, we hope that the final agreement will start maturing. Few decisions are likely to be taken here. However, the negotiating texts have started becoming more and more widely accepted.

Kriton Arsenis, MEP