Draft Resolution.

Thursday was the deadline for the Conference of Parties ResoAlution, and although the draft resolution is a long one, coming in at 20 pages, it appears as if it was cooked up just to meet the deadline. Though it is much longer than last year's resolution, which was only seven pages, it appears even more confusing and vague.

In trying to include text on everything from cutting greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation, in the UN jargon) to human rights, technology and food, the resolution ends up saying nothing concrete about anyAthing. It fails to resolve some of the more contentious issues around climate change and does not appear to say anything new.

For example, the resolution shies away from making any decisions, consistently using the term 'placeholder for relevant outcomes from ongoing negotiations' as a pretext to not have to come to any concluAsive commitments. This was the deadline, yet the draft resolution keeps putting off making decisions on the excuse of 'ongoing negotiations'. On major financial actions, such as granting funding, the draft resoluAtion only uses non-committal language; for example, on the issue of food security, which has become an urgent problem in climate-change-devastated countries due to floods ruining crops, the...