12/08/11 2:36pm

Article By: Jake Schmidt

This year the lanyards given out by the environmental groups have a famous Nelson Mandela quote that is quite fitting for the current state of play in the final days of the global warming negotiations in South Africa.  The quote from Mandela says: “It always seems impossible, until it’s done”.  Will countries rally in the final days and hours or will they block progress?  Will they rise above their current stated positions?  Will they move forward with strong actions to reduce emissions by all key countries and help the most vulnerable deal with the impacts of global warming?

Ministers are meeting in closed sessions now.  Agreement seems out of reach at this stage.  It is hard to tell how this can come together.  Let’s hope they can get their act together.  Failure isn’t an option.  The consequences of not addressing global warming are too serious. 

It is not impossible.

This post originally appeared on NRDC's staff blog Switchboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Jake Schmidt is the international climate policy director at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Read his blog at http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/.

 

Original Post: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/video_blog_from_global_warming_1.html