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IN THE CORRIDORS

The Thursday morning statement of the Chair of Working Group I that we are revisiting the last night of negotiations of the Convention in Paris (June 1994) was echoed by many delegates. The repeated adjournments of the Group on Wednesday and Thursday for informal negotiations, numerous new drafts that emerged after short breaks, and shuttle diplomacy between the contact and regional groups left many frustrated. As one delegate said, “this animal called the Global Mechanism will haunt us forever.” Some delegates said one reason consensus could not be reached was the lack of direct contact between the regional and interest groups, who were informally exchanging text after negotiating within their group instead of sitting around the table to negotiate and draft consensus text. Others noted that although the text presented at 5:30 pm might please both sides, it made no grammatical sense.