I knew that something was amiss. He just exited a press release, which was held 2 hours earlier than scheduled.

The usually calm and collected Stern was hurried by his entourage. I told a friend by my side that something much more urgent was going on than your typical rush between COP meetings.

Turns out that he was headed for bilateral meetings with the EU and BASIC group. As Christiana Figueres told me the other day, this COP is like a duck, “on the surface it looks calm, but under water” those feet as busy as can be.

Maybe this is just what she was talking about. To me, the only duck in this global pond is the EU. But its feet are moving so hard underwater that it is apparent on the surface that it is working frantically to get allies on round 2 of the Kyoto Protocol. Best of luck, on behalf of all of us, I hope that Christina Figueres is right about this COP having a lot of action beneath the surface. 2020 just won’t do. One thing is certain, Todd Stern was approaching his BASIC/EU bilateral with a lot of focus and preparation. Maybe COP17 can get several ducks in a row, giving us an early Christmas present – a breakthrough here in Durban… Warning: this is my youthful optimism speaking.