New Zealand and Russia Share the 1st Place of Fossil of the Day 

By staff reporter WANG SONG 

The second week of the United Nations climate change negotiations began with a heavy dose of Fossils. Dec. 5th, New Zealand and Russia shared a rare joint Fossil in First Place for wanting to benefit from a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol without being bound by it. Saudi Arabia earned second for putting payments to its oil habit over mitigation to stop climate change. The United States won 3rd for not doing much of anything, as usual. 

The United States of America earns the 3rd place Fossil. The United States is trying to stop progress in Durban and is succeeding in catalyzing a movement against them as they delay, obstruct, and sabotage good faith efforts toward a deal.

Saudi Arabia earns the second place Fossil of the Day. Saudi Arabia continues to insist that work on its particular pet issue of response measures (code for compensation to be paid to oil-producers) is just as important as a full global response to fighting climate change with mitigation measures.

New Zealand and Russia share the 1st place Fossil.

Russia earns the Fossil for opposing the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and for trying to carryover the hot air emissions credits into the same second commitment period, both at the same time, although it is hard to explain logically.

Meanwhile, New Zealand has been acting inconsistently in the KP negotiations. It has insisted that it could not constitutionally agree to provisional implementation of a second commitment period despite its internal policy stating that it can.

About The Fossil of the Day Awards

The Fossil of the Day Awards was first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During UN climate talks, CAN members vote daily for the countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in that day's negotiations.