1:07am and the negotiations continue

Its 1:07am Poznan time on this last night of the Poznan climate talks, and I've just got word that the negotiations are continuing throughout the night. As of this moment, it is still unclear what will be coming out of these closed-door meetings, and what will conclusion will have arisen when dawn breaks Saturday morning.

The Poznan talks have been a bit awkward, a feeling that many delegates have known since the start of the conference. The nature of this halfway point between the seminal Bali conference where an action plan for a post-2012 agreement was made, and the Copenhagen conference next year which is the deadline for a new agreement is recognized here in Poznan. This feeling is further emphasized by the lame-duck administration that is here representing Bush. It seems that its not only Canada that is awaiting further details of Obama's climate plan, though it would seem any proposals that he has might not make it in time for the UN's 2009 deadline.

No one that I have spoken to seems to be 100% clear of what exactly is supposed to come out of this conference, though I've heard "clear national commitments" on several positions on reduction targets, adaptation financing, and positions on deforestation from land use and clean development mechanisms mentioned several times.

At around 8pm I saw Canadian Environment Jim Prentice enter the site and walk prominently to what looked like yet another meeting, and chief negotiator Michael Martin rush to another one.

When the daylight breaks and in the days and weeks to follow, it will become abundantly clear what if anything was accomplished at this conference, and what it means for the development of a new global climate agreement by 2009.