| Louisville Climate Action Network |
This page was
most recently
updated on
14 Dec 09.
most recently
updated on
14 Dec 09.
Reports from Copenhagen
| Monday, 14 Dec 09 |
It's been three days since I've posted, so this update will serve as a catch-up. I'll also
provide you some links to interesting items from other sources that may interest you.
As a general summary overview of where negotiations stand: some aspects have
progressed, but many have not. The major rifts still seem to exist:
You may want to read this in-depth discussion of the negotiations, but it seems to me
that there will be either enough compromise on each of those three key issues or there
will be no compromise on any of them.
The Conference Center is absolutely slammed today with literally thousands of new
attendees, arriving for this second—and final—week of negotiations. The multiple lines
for credentialing stretch for hundreds of feet, and require hours of each person in line.
I’m quite glad that I arrived early and was credentialed the Sunday before things started.
With over 100 heads of state due in this week, security is much tighter, especially given
the unrelated attack yesterday in Milan on Italy’s Prime Minister.
For the first time in my seven UN climate change conferences, the UN is implementing a
system of secondary badges, distributed via a quota system. For example, my Sierra
Club group of 15 will have to share 5 secondary badges this week. I'll likely be able to
be admitted to only one other day of sessions this week as we share those limited
badges. It’s sort of a cap-and-trade system for conference attendance. Maybe the
value of badges will go up on eBay. Proceeds to go toward the adaptation fund. I
recommend a 100% auction approach. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek.)
Let me digress for a moment on local color, before getting back to the serious business
at hand:
Last Friday, I took in a very impressive presentation by the Hadley Centre of England.
Other than NASA'’s Goddard Space Institute, the Hadley Centre is probably preeminent
for the comprehensiveness and high quality of its climate-change science research. Its
annual side event here is THE de rigeur science presentation—a must-see.
Lead scientists recapped the latest research, which continues to roll in at accelerating
rates. Unfortunately, all key indicators, e.g., average global surface temps, droughts,
ocean acidification, precipitation events, arctic sea-ice melt, glacial retreat, Amazon
rainforest degradation, etc, are moving in the wrong direction, usually at the outer ends
of the ranges predicted by the IPCC just a few years ago.
Also on Friday, our Sierra Club group was briefed by Triggs Talley, a US State Dept.
official, on the state of the negotiations. He was very informative. But due to the nature
of these briefings, they’re off the record and I may not provide info from that session.
For this evening's Sierra Club session, I've tentatively arranged a meeting, through the
good offices of Louisville's Christy Lee Brown, with her son-in-law, Mathew Barzun, the
US Ambassador to Sweden. It will be a real treat for us to have the opportunity to
spend a few minutes with him.
To wrap up this report, I'm offering the following five additional items:
A one-minute video about job creation through wind energy, by a member of our group
that took a tour of a large wind farm off the coast of Denmark.
This picture of the candlelight vigil march
in Copenhagen on Saturday evening, right,
that had somewhere between 30,000 and
100,000 participants.
The Messages to America site, by Carolyn
Chase, of our group, that contains photos,
videos and a blog about the conference.
My favorites are the short videos (usually
about a minute long) from folks from all over
the world about why they’re here.
The Earth Negotiation Bulletin from December 12 ((also linked above), for a good
summary of the state of play of most key issues. I especially recommend the "In the
Corridors" piece at the end, as a very good colloquial summary of the latest.
An excellent, very readable piece from Energy & Environment Publishing, that gets
deep into the weeds of the details of the keys issues dividing the parties.
Thanks for your continued interest,
Art Williams
provide you some links to interesting items from other sources that may interest you.
As a general summary overview of where negotiations stand: some aspects have
progressed, but many have not. The major rifts still seem to exist:
- whether the US will agree to legally binding emission reductions
- whether the major developing countries—China and India—will do likewise
- whether and how much money and other resources the developed countries will
provide the developing countries for adaptation, technology development, etc
You may want to read this in-depth discussion of the negotiations, but it seems to me
that there will be either enough compromise on each of those three key issues or there
will be no compromise on any of them.
The Conference Center is absolutely slammed today with literally thousands of new
attendees, arriving for this second—and final—week of negotiations. The multiple lines
for credentialing stretch for hundreds of feet, and require hours of each person in line.
I’m quite glad that I arrived early and was credentialed the Sunday before things started.
With over 100 heads of state due in this week, security is much tighter, especially given
the unrelated attack yesterday in Milan on Italy’s Prime Minister.
For the first time in my seven UN climate change conferences, the UN is implementing a
system of secondary badges, distributed via a quota system. For example, my Sierra
Club group of 15 will have to share 5 secondary badges this week. I'll likely be able to
be admitted to only one other day of sessions this week as we share those limited
badges. It’s sort of a cap-and-trade system for conference attendance. Maybe the
value of badges will go up on eBay. Proceeds to go toward the adaptation fund. I
recommend a 100% auction approach. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek.)
Let me digress for a moment on local color, before getting back to the serious business
at hand:
- On Saturday evening, I headed from my hotel in Malmö, Sweden (across the bay
from Copenhagen), to join my Sierra Club colleagues for dinner. After walking to
my bus stop, I saw police lights approaching in the distance and heard a low
roar. Within minutes, what should appear, but an Xmas parade of about 250
motorcycles! Most of the bikes were festively decorated in various Xmas themes:
reindeer antlers were big. Most of the cyclists were dressed in Santa suits. My
favorite was a fully sequined Elvis-Santa, an almost dead ringer for The King.
Our dinner was along what's reported to be the longest pedestrian mall in
Europe, over a mile. Hundreds of shops along the way. I don't think it was a
Cordish project, since it's apparently been there for decades. LOL.
On our return train trip, colleague Dave Scott and I struck up a conversation with
a pleasant older (than me) gentleman, who is Danish but lives in Sweden. He is
an accountant and has his own firm. Turns out that he was quite conservative
politically, and thought this hubbub about climate change was a bit overdone. No
problem. The fun part was when he told us with obvious excitement that he's
going to Graceland in Memphis, TN, next month for the celebration of what would
have been Elvis’ 75th birthday! He was an absolute Elvis fan. He is 61 and has
been a fan since he was 8 years old; he has every one of his records, has seen
every movie multiple times and knows his life story inside and out. What a hoot!
On Sunday, I did my first sightseeing and headed north to the city of Helsingør,
about 40 minutes by train from Copenhagen, to visit Denmark's most famous and
revered castle: Kronborg, where the Danish king lived from its construction in
the 1400s (I think) to the time in the 1600s when Sweden invaded and captured
it. (The royal family lived elsewhere thereafter.) It is a magnificent castle, and
occupies a prominent point on the northeastern coast, nearest Sweden. From
there, the Danish king extracted passage fees from all ship crews wanting by.
The Kronborg castle is also the setting in which Shakespeare placed Hamlet.
I also took in the excellent modern art museum, called Louisiana, which had a
spectacular special exhibit on green architecture. I wrapped up the day back in
Copenhagen at a spot called Tivoli Gardens--part amusement park, part green
space and part retail--festooned with Xmas decorations, including over a million
lights. It is in the city center, has been there for years and allegedly was an early
inspiration to Walt Disney for his US theme parks.
Last Friday, I took in a very impressive presentation by the Hadley Centre of England.
Other than NASA'’s Goddard Space Institute, the Hadley Centre is probably preeminent
for the comprehensiveness and high quality of its climate-change science research. Its
annual side event here is THE de rigeur science presentation—a must-see.
Lead scientists recapped the latest research, which continues to roll in at accelerating
rates. Unfortunately, all key indicators, e.g., average global surface temps, droughts,
ocean acidification, precipitation events, arctic sea-ice melt, glacial retreat, Amazon
rainforest degradation, etc, are moving in the wrong direction, usually at the outer ends
of the ranges predicted by the IPCC just a few years ago.
Also on Friday, our Sierra Club group was briefed by Triggs Talley, a US State Dept.
official, on the state of the negotiations. He was very informative. But due to the nature
of these briefings, they’re off the record and I may not provide info from that session.
For this evening's Sierra Club session, I've tentatively arranged a meeting, through the
good offices of Louisville's Christy Lee Brown, with her son-in-law, Mathew Barzun, the
US Ambassador to Sweden. It will be a real treat for us to have the opportunity to
spend a few minutes with him.
To wrap up this report, I'm offering the following five additional items:
A one-minute video about job creation through wind energy, by a member of our group
that took a tour of a large wind farm off the coast of Denmark.
This picture of the candlelight vigil march
in Copenhagen on Saturday evening, right,
that had somewhere between 30,000 and
100,000 participants.
The Messages to America site, by Carolyn
Chase, of our group, that contains photos,
videos and a blog about the conference.
My favorites are the short videos (usually
about a minute long) from folks from all over
the world about why they’re here.
The Earth Negotiation Bulletin from December 12 ((also linked above), for a good
summary of the state of play of most key issues. I especially recommend the "In the
Corridors" piece at the end, as a very good colloquial summary of the latest.
An excellent, very readable piece from Energy & Environment Publishing, that gets
deep into the weeds of the details of the keys issues dividing the parties.
Thanks for your continued interest,
Art Williams
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