After the last meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (“ADP”, 2nd session, 10th Part) which took place in Bonn earlier this month, the pace of climate talks for the adoption of a universal agreement on climate change under the auspices of the UNFCCC is still too slow, only three months ahead of the opening of COP21 on November 30th.

Since May 31st, negotiators have tried to consolidate the formal negotiating text, so called the Geneva Text, through a “mechanical streamlining” exercise aiming at the deletion of redundancies or overlaps among positions in order to reduce its size. Because this exercise did not lead to any real debate on substance, negotiators were frustrated and thus asked the co-chairs of the ADP (Ahmed Djoghlaf from Algeria, and Daniel Reifsnyder from the United States) to develop, under their own responsibility, a more concise text before the ADP Session in September.