Proceedings at the Plenary

According to Su Wei, China’s lead negotiator, "the main task of this (conference) is to adapt an agreed outcome from the Bali Action Plan [agreed in 2007] and we should very much focus on that. We have a very valid system to combat climate change. But the existing agreement is not tough enough for the smaller, more vulnerable members with more to lose from rising sea levels and less to lose in terms of the economic constraints of a tough treaty.”
"This is the first time we've seen the island nations make such a splash," said Malini Mehra of the India-based Centre for Social Markets.
"The AOSIS call for a new protocol and the way it was denounced by Saudi Arabia, China, and India show that the G77 has now come asunder and the island nations are leading," she told BBC News
"As they must - they have seized the high moral ground."

Mr. Fry called for the Conference of the Parties - the official name for the full gatherings here of all countries - to be suspended if its proposal for full-scale discussions on the issue of a tough new protocol was not accepted.
Chairwoman Connie Hedegaard had to agree, moving on to other items to allow time for discussions behind the scenes. During the same session, China - and other countries - re-iterated calls for industrialized nations to pledge bigger cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. But that has been a familiar call here; the rift between members of the formerly solid developing country bloc is a much less common happening, and may indicate that hopes held out by some countries of signing only a political commitment here may not be enough to placate the poorest and most vulnerable nations.
(Courtesy BBC News Website)