Getting into the plenary hall here in Copenhagen a few hours ago involved some tricky navigation through a tense convergence of chanting demonstrators and security guards.
Sadly, my elbowing was all for naught. As it turns out, the highly charged meeting I had piled in for wouldn't be starting anytime soon. The president informed us that parties were still far from consensus and that she would bring a proposal forward as soon as possible. Until then, the Conference of the Parties (COP) remains suspended. Suspense!
I was sitting in another session this morning when the drama began. The COP came to an agenda item on Article 17, which covers the creation of new protocols under the Convention. A new protocol is one of the core legal outcomes possible here, so that discussion is hugely important.
After countries summarized their positions, the COP president proposed that countries establish a contact group - a smaller negotiating meeting still open to all parties and observers -to discuss the proposals and find a way forward. But the creation of this particular group was blocked by China, India, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
Tuvalu is "Ray of the Day"
Since contact groups can only be established by consensus (and the "CHIVES" grouping, as the new mock acronym goes, refused to budge in opposition), the chair proposed an informal consultation as a way to move forward. But this was in turn blocked by Tuvalu, one of those who had tabled a proposal. One of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate change, Tuvalu was backed up by many fellow members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries (LDC) groups. The net result was an extremely rare event: a public split of the G77+China bloc.
What was behind Tuvalu's refusal? They argued that informal consultations - forums that can exclude smaller nations and occur behind closed doors -are not the place to negotiate such a critical issue.
As a result of the impasse, the chair suspended the meeting and planned to reconvene in the afternoon.
The demonstrators I nudged past on my way in to the reconvened session were chanting their support for tiny Tuvalu. But inside the meeting hall, the chair reported the two sides were still far apart on how to proceed, and the meeting moved on to other issues without resolving the key question, for now at least.
At the Climate Action Network's booth tonight, Tuvalu received a rare honour for its commitment to transparency: a new prize called "Ray of the Day". (Canada took home the non-prize of a Fossil of the Day at the same ceremony.)
We have now heard from the COP president that "important consultative meetings" will continue into the evening. She will report back in the morning - hopefully with good news.
P.J. Partington was a senior analyst with the Pembina Institute's federal policy group until 2015.
