Live From Copenhagen: Take Me to Your Climate Leader

Today was a very full day as I tried to get in as much COP as possible before I am denied access tomorrow.  The line is getting longer, but the Danish National Guard provided tea and coffee to mitigate the freezing wait.  By Thursday the COP will be virtually closed to observers.

I attended an interesting CNN/Youtube discussion between Kofi Anan, Yvo De Boer, Darryl Hannah, Thomas Friedmann, and Bjorn Lamborg.  The questions were provided from around the world tube by youtube clips.  I am not sure why Bjorn Lamborg (noted environmental skeptic) came to Copenhagen at all, but he moderated his views to focus on the need of energy and food for developing countries.  Freedman expressed the need to economize and incentivize clean energy, ‘There is only one thing as big as mother nature and that is father greed.’   I believe the full session is available on youtube.  Afterward I snatched a photo with Thomas Friedman.

The opening plenary of the High Level Session (HLS) saw a number of dignitaries stress the importance of what needs to happen in the next three days.  Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, compared what is happening here with the meeting that created the United Nations.  ‘We are on the cusp of an agreement; we are on the cusp of history.’  He favored the developing world and most NGOs with a reminder that until a new agreement is reached ‘the Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding treaty we have, and it must be maintained.’  COP President Connie Hedegaard reiterated the fact that the key word for the next two days must be compromise, ‘Success is still a possibility, but we can fail. You the parties must commit, compromise and deliver now.’ Finally Prince Charles delivered a rather moving speech, ‘We cannot have capitalism without nature’s capital.  We cannot sustain our economy without sustaining nature’s economy.’

Yet ministers are arriving tomorrow, and not nearly enough progress has been achieved.  In the closing session of the Kyoto Protocol working group, the inadequacy of negotiation over the past week and half became apparent.  The chair tried to summarize the group’s progress and prepare a concluding report for the HLS (of ministers and heads of state) to begin tomorrow.  India highlighted that ‘one of the most important issue is not complete’ (i.e. agreement to keep the Kyoto Protocol). Switzerland complained that the process ‘has been chaotic and that this should be the exception not the norm. We are not clear on what to report, and your explanations are not explanations.’    The chair suggested that clarity was something the delegates should provide through their negotiations, but that his responsibility is to produce a report.  The delegate from Algeria retorted ‘It is very difficult to report to the COP/MOP, when we have nothing to report’.  The meeting was moved to a smaller room and closed to the public so that parties could try to come up with something to deliver to their ministers tomorrow.  Dozens of frustrated observers marshaled outside, wondering how they can bring pressure to bear on their officials when so much of this process is not transparent.

Finally, I was abducted by aliens demanding to be taken to my climate leader.  I wasn’t sure where to take them.  Leaders are willing to sacrifice of themselves to achieve the greater good, such a group is yet to emerge out of these negotiations.  However, I have heard that South Korea has offered to accept binding commitments to try to lead the way for other emerging economies.  This might be just the olive branch the negotiations need.

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