Today Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC executive secretary, said that there will probably be two agreements at Copenhagen.  This is big news for a rather mechanical week with lots of negotiations, text editing,  and politicians here in the U.S. making announcements any time they feel they’re being ignored (which is often).   Add to that leaks and big pronouncements that the talks are in disarray and it sounds like the whole thing is a waste of time.  But it’s not.  It is hard to keep up with all that is going on at this climate summit, COP15. There are the regular meetings and then there are hundreds of side meetings that aren’t on the official schedule.   Here is the press conference from today.

“Briefing the press on day four of the conference, Yvo de Boer highlighted progress made in the area of technology, where there is agreement on a strong new structure to deliver on technology once the finance is in place.  This new technology mechanism includes an Executive Body responsible for accelerating action on technology development and transfer, as well as a new Consultative Network for Climate Technologies.

Mr. de Boer announced that negotiators have two days left before Ministers begin to arrive on Saturday, when the COP President will take stock of progress so far.  On the question of the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, Mr. de Boer said that “the Kyoto Protocol will and must survive,” emphasizing that “the Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding instrument we have to act on climate change.” He pointed out the time needed for a new instrument to be ratified and enter into force, and stressed the importance for the market mechanisms of avoiding any gap.”

You really can’t get much from these clips of press briefings and they sound much drier than what is actually going on there.

It would be better to watch some of the videos but the UN isn’t releasing this media as podcasts or anything portable — you have to go to their website to look up the videos.   So, visit the UNFCCC website if you want to follow what is going on in Copenhagen. They are negotiating a new text to extend Kyoto, which hasn’t helped, and the main thing going for it seems to be that it’s a legal document. Now it looks like there may be two agreements. This is from Bloomberg:

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — United Nations negotiators will probably propose two climate agreements this month, with an extension of the Kyoto Protocol controlling emissions until a wider deal is struck, said the top official at talks in Denmark.

The first accord will extend the protocol, whose targets expire in 2012, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said today in an interview in Copenhagen. A second, perhaps ratified later by all nations including the U.S., would be a new treaty.

With all these treaties being discussed, you would think [...]