WARSAW, Nov 24 2013 (IPS)
The U.N. climate talks in Warsaw ended in dramatic fashion Saturday evening in what looked like a schoolyard fight with a mob of dark-suited supporters packed around the weary combatants, Todd Stern of the United States and Sai Navoti of Fiji representing G77 nations.
It took two weeks and 36 straight hours of negotiations to get to this point.
At issue in this classic North versus South battle was the creation of a third pillar of a new climate treaty to be finalised in 2015. Countries of the South, with 80 percent of the world’s people, finally won, creating a loss and damage pillar to go with the mitigation (emissions reduction) and adaptation pillars.
Super-typhoon Haiyan’s impact on the Philippines just days before the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) amply illustrated the reality of loss and damages arising from climate change. Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Saño made an emotional speech announcing “fast for the climate” at the COP19 opening that garnered worldwide attention, including nearly a million YouTube views
Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist 
Good one, Steve. I’ll put it in my next newsletter. Sad, sad video — I shared it on Facebook. Thanks so much for your hard, excellent work. Iona
Steve — I have a question. Did you mean to write “walked OUT?” below?
In what may be the first of many such actions, more than 800 members of civil society walked out of the COP negotiations on the second to last day “in protest against rich industrialized countries jeopardizing international climate action” they said.
My emails are stuck tonight so you’ll probably get both of these at once.
Iona
Hi Iona, yes, that should read walked out.