Making Sense of the Climate Impasse

We were at an impasse earlier this morning.

While the peace and reconciliation process is at an impasse, the socio economic and humanitarian situation of the country continues to deteriorate, directly affecting the people of Côte d'Ivoire.

First, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is passing through a prolonged impasse.

I am not sure what the prospects are for truly emerging from that impasse.

We hope that discussions aimed at breaking the impasse will continue on this very important issue.

Frankly speaking, the stakes are too high for the present impasse to be allowed to continue.

The economic costs of the impasse have been catastrophic for Greece, and pose a grave threat to Europe. The breakdown of negotiations last week sparked a bank panic, leaving Greece s economy paralyzed and its banks on the verge of insolvency.

For those reasons, I deeply regret the fact that this year the Commission is facing the same impasse.

Second, divergence of views on a possible fissile material treaty is one of the reasons for the impasse.

I believe that this is the way that we, back in our capitals, should look at the CD's impasse.

The current impasse on economic reform highlights a larger point subsidy and tax regimes cannot be reformed without first redefining the underlying social contract, which has long exchanged welfare distribution for political acquiescence. But such a move is far too risky for an individual politician, or even a single country, at a time of economic uncertainty and high unemployment.

We must stop believing that the impasse in the CD can be resolved by clever procedural drafting exercises among ourselves.

Although it seems we are still at that impasse, I discern some potential avenues to take us out of it.

After having been in an impasse for a long time, these negotiations now have a genuine chance of being relaunched.

In the past, when state economic decision making reached such an impasse, wars and or revolutions were the inevitable result. As we face the type of turning point decisions not seen since the darkest days of the 1930 s, can we avoid such an outcome?

We hope that reason will prevail, as we count on a fair resolution of the present banana trade impasse in Europe.

It is important for us to look forward rather than to ruminate as to how we got to the present impasse.

There are no signs of this impasse going away because there is no political will amongst key actors to remove it.

Despite the protracted impasse, of course, there have been some noteworthy inputs to the consideration of the PAROS issue at the CD.

Constitutional debt limits have yet to be tested in times of emergency, when new funding is needed quickly. And, as the recent impasse in the US demonstrates, political minorities with effective veto power can abuse statutory ceilings in an economic downturn, when dependence on external debt finance increases.

The Conference on Disarmament is already going through a period of chronic impasse and the Disarmament Commission is in a state of paralysis.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) National Human Development Report 2003 for Colombia, El conflicto, callejón con salida (Solutions to escape the conflict's impasse).

The Conference on Disarmament opens its current session with renewed hopes of overcoming the impasse that has impeded its work for so long.

The continuing impasse between the major actors in Côte d'Ivoire jeopardizes even the October elections and, in consequence, the stability of the entire region.

The process of recognizing the right to self determination of the Saharan people, which had been discussed for so long, was at an impasse.

Aware of the urgent need for revitalized and active international involvement to support both parties in overcoming the current dangerous impasse in the peace process,

Aware of the urgent need for revitalized and active international involvement to support both parties in overcoming the current dangerous impasse in the peace process,

Thus, while the Likud referendum seems to have left the Israeli Palestinian dispute at yet another impasse, both sides are on the verge of enormous changes.

This is exactly the same proposal, made after the impasse and after the failure of two groups of delegations to help me remove the square brackets.

My Government believes that the international community could break the impasse in disarmament negotiations with a strong recommitment to upholding multilateralism and working for multilaterally agreed solutions.

It is now essentially concentrating on dealing with the symptoms of the crisis, which, with the continuing impasse in the peace process, are getting worse day by day.

In 2004, the Government of Guam narrowly avoided a Government shutdown when the Legislature and the Governor experienced a serious impasse on the budget for the fiscal year 2005.

In addition, every effort must be made to surmount the protracted political impasse at the Conference on Disarmament and to begin negotiations on the fissile material cut off treaty.

While not a particularly palatable option for us here, it is one about which we must increasingly be cognizant, in the face of our ongoing impasse in this Conference.

Firstly, the initiative presented by Ambassador Chris Sanders, the  food for thought document, which puts forward interesting procedural and substantive proposals with the aim of breaking the current impasse.

It was because of an impasse in the implementation of action plans, especially in West Africa, that the IUCN decided to reintroduce a new process to implement action programmes.

My delegation lends its full support to the unrelenting efforts of President Mbeki in instituting the African Union's (AU) plan of action to resolve the impasse among the Ivorian parties.

But it is harder to explain that we keep these priorities hostage to each other, to the extent that we end up in a total deadlock and at an impasse.

I would like to make the following suggestions to get past this impasse and create a revitalized and productive momentum in the CD to return it to its substantive task.

Thailand s political impasse, amid massive anti democracy demonstrations, has hit world headlines, and elections have also been violently contested in Bangladesh. There have been widespread human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

Indeed, France and Germany barely escaped financial sanctions in November 2003 for their violations of the Pact. Although the European Court of Justice later declared that decision invalid, the impasse remains.

Nigeria has continued to reiterate its full support for the Five Ambassadors Proposal as a mechanism for breaking the existing impasse in reaching a work programme for the Conference on Disarmament.

The primary responsibility for completing the Round now rests with the US, Brazil, China, and India. This group s inflexibility is at the root of the current impasse, and, should the Round fail,

Let me conclude by expressing my strong desire that in cooperation with your capitals, you will find a way out of the impasse, and I wish you every success in that endeavour.