Reuters reports:
Seething after they were overruled in a consensus decision at U.N. talks in Qatar last year, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine blocked one strand of two-week climate talks in Bonn ending on Friday, by insisting on clearer rules for decision-making.
“Our process is very sick,” Russian delegate Oleg Shamanov said.
Most nations reluctantly accept the ambiguous idea of consensus as less unwieldy than the alternatives of unanimity – meaning a veto for every nation – or majority voting, which could also see countries overruled more frequently.