How do you choose 300 people from a group of 7,000 to remain in the venue, without making anyone angry? This was the impossible question given to the secretariat of the UNFCCC (a big hand to them who have solved so many of these impossible questions so far), and the heads of the various groups of NGOs at the end of the 10th day of the COP15. Details aside, there was a draw from a hat, and we lost all but two of our Bridging the Gap colleagues (Holger Dalkmann and Ko Sakamoto, both TRL) from the venue - although statistically speaking this is close to a miracle!
The remaining two members of the team now have the huge responsibility, not only of keeping this blog updated, but to chase up the Hillary Clintons, Angela Merkels and John Kerrys of this world - Fortunately there is photographic evidence to suggest we have succeeded in doing so!
More importantly, we were busy following the final stages of the negotiating process, something which has been slower than optimal in the last few days. As this blog is being written, negotiators are busy at work in the various drafting groups, to tidy up the text on the key issues to be presented to the heads of state sometime tomorrow. A big question is whether the presence of politicians (ministers and heads of state) would work in the favour of "removing the brackets" from the large issues, such as the level of financing and levels of GHG reduction. We shall find out in the next 24 hours.
