Twitter opens Poznan carbon summit

Micro blogging transforms climate news

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5 December 2008 11:53 GMT / By Adam Vaughan

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, has been deployed to open the workings of a major climate conference in Poland.

The meeting in Poznan is host to 11,000 delegates working to thrash out the basis for 'Kyoto 2', an international agreement on cutting future carbon emissions. News from the event, such as today's statement from the Alliance of Small Island States, is breaking faster on the #poznan Twitter thread than it is on mainstream news sites.

Over 200 posts - or "Tweets", as they're known in the Twitter universe - have already been written about Poznan. Many are from campaigning charities such as Oxfam, which are reporting direct from the event. Influential blogs such as DeSmogBlog are encouraging Twitter users to join the coverage and debate.

Other Web 2.0 tools are also being used in an attempt to influence the summit's outcome, including a WWF-organised Flickr group with another 11,000 photos and YouTube videos on Poznan's official UN site.

Major announcements from the fortnight-long summit are expected next week.