Meeting between Executive Secretary of COP21 and Civil Society

The Executive Secretary of COP21, Christiana Figueres, held a meeting between members of civil society and observer organizations on Friday, December 4th.  She, along with the former President of COP20 Miguel Pulgar-Vidal, who was designated Special Envoy to Civil Society, took questions and concerns from each constituency group.  This meeting was prompted in part due to complaints throughout the week from civil society on the issues of transparency and access to negotiations.

Secretary Figueres noted that there are over 10,000 observers in COP21 and expressed frustration with the cancelation of climate change related marches due to security concerns.  She said that she and COP President Fabius’ regime are committed to the inclusion of civil society, but with respect to the “orderly process” and the “rules and procedure" of negotiations. 

Civil society organizations have complained that much of the actual negotiations take place behind closed doors, in informal (or “informal informal”) “spinoff meetings” between parties.  Unlike other closed sessions, these spinoffs are closed to all observers and are not broadcasted through webcast like other closed meetings. 

Some have argued that these closed door meetings are necessary to allow for negotiators to speak frankly about compromising and bargaining.  Observer or press presence in these rooms would cause immediate release of sensitive information and quick reaction by organizations and the public, officials say, ultimately hindering negotiator’s ability to reach a deal. 

Secretary Figueres responded to these concerns by saying that they have opened meetings to the best of their abilities and are operating within the rules of the Convention.  Since complaints, they have opening overflow rooms for observation that have capacity of 950 people, up from 100 people earlier in the week, and that all documents from the spinoff groups are published openly.