Youth delegates to the United Nations climate summit held a mid-day protest Tuesday, urging negotiators not to “bracket our future” in the way they frame the final draft of the Paris agreement.
The reference to square brackets mocked the negotiating convention of including [multiple options] [mutually exclusive possibilities] [long-standing positioning statements with no hope of success] in drafts of international agreements, indicating areas where further negotiation is needed.
UN officials at the Le Bourget conference site prohibited the youth from distributing recommended text revisions to media and observers, but some observers were permitted to take cell phone photos of the one-page document. It called on negotiators to add or strengthen language on intergenerational equity in the draft accord.
