A KEY panel at UN climate talks in Bonn went into deep freeze on Tuesday as Russia ignored pleas to end a procedural protest that observers said put narrow politics above global interests.
Supported by Belarus and Ukraine, Russia blocked work in the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), a key technical committee, in the latest round of climate talks, which opened on June 3.
Observers said if the three countries did not back down, the future of the entire UN process to fight greenhouse gas emissions would be at risk.
“It’s a most unfortunate situation,” said Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which announced the suspension.
