Late-breaking news: Wednesday Nov. 4

Updates brought to you by the ENB team members throughout the day:

• Negotiators began to set out their stall on flexible mechanisms at a joint meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). The so called 'Umbrella Group', including Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation and the US, has prepared a detailed position paper, which was drafted during pre-COP deliberations at the weekend. The group is opposing a quantified cap. The EU is continuing to flag its strong commitment to the view that flexible mechanisms must supplement domestic efforts. Switzerland has called for a strong compliance mechanism. A joint contact group has been formed to advance discussion.
• The 'Umbrella Group' has met with the EU to identify areas of agreement. The EU has already produced draft decisions and a draft schedule of work for the period following the COP.
• Despite continuing differences over the questions of supplementarity and capping within the context of their informal deliberations on flexible mechanisms, the EU and the ‘Umbrella Group’ (Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation and the US) have begun to focus on strategy and timing. At an informal meeting at lunchtime Wednesday the groups found that they had much in common on proposals for a work programme and were able to focus on strategy and the timing of their interventions with an eye on likely G-77/China and OPEC responses.