Early this morning the city gave those of us with passes access to closed circuit of the proceedings at an event center one Metro stop from here – the Forum  (there are NO press allowed in to the actual event either except as part of the entourage of heads of state – so effectively no independent press). I plan to go down there in the afternoon more to see whom I might meet than anything else. At this point it is all about serendipity. We may have a health meeting somewhere in the city but even that may evaporate for lack of meeting space.

I can watch the proceedings from here on my computer for that matter. It snowed heavily last night and I’m going to get out in it for awhile this morning to get a bag for all the paper I collected that will be useful for our consortium so I can pay excess baggage fees to KLM to and from Scotland.   
Last Sunday’s walk seems a long time away – but here’s a little of the nicer side of Copenhagen! Maybe I’ll get some more in the snow today.

I cannot resist…for those of you who want the look and feel fo this conference, here is a message just in from my constituency – the research NGO (RINGO) about how we can even get into the center. We all thought that we registered and got in. Then came the “secondary badges.”

Scurrying to Get the Latest Tickets

Ok we could deal with that. But now after several times a day changes and iterations we get this (see below.) There is no earthly way to ge real work accomplished in a context like this.

Many events and focal groups have moved offsite and the Copenhagen Business School has offered closed circuit tv broadcasts of all the sessions and press sessions. The school is literally across the square from the flat I rented. Humm I wonder what I should do? That’s a hard one…especially because they may not even let us in tomorrow.

“Dear Members of the RINGO Constituency,

We received further guidance from the UNFCCC Secretariat on further RINGO meetings, on registration for NGOs, on access to the Bella Center and on access to the Plenary.

On registration:

*  For health and safety reasons, there may be no new registrations allowed for civil society organisations on Wednesday or  

For all the comments questioning US committment due to us not having passed climate legislation, the celebrity status of Americans remains secure. Just an observation: we have power through celebrity and I wonder why we don’t use it to better advantage in situations such as this.

The mood inside is tense as each group tries to have something their head of state will approve as they arrive tomorrow and Thursday.  Impasses surround monitorning issues top the list with China and the US facing off.

Our health delegation, a small but mighty band, moves forward. Last week’s EPA ruling is the impetus for the almost entirely European group (except me, in fact) to concur that the best approach to getting health on the agenda is through the American delegation. What irony. I met this morning with World Health Organization representatives and those from HEAL in Brussels and Healthcare Without Harm – the leading players in the health delegation. 

The Health Meeting

They ask good questions about tactics for influencing ministers working on the current drafts and in looking to the future about getting health more purposefully on the agenda, but really need some good marketing counseling — as in, what’s in it for the people you are trying to influence not just making your point in a new way.  I agree with one of the members this morning who said we may be looking down the “wrong end of the telescope.”

On a brighter note, yours truly was able to get health as a key issue inserted into one of the 6 official documents from delegate constituencies, the research NGO group (RINGO) to which I belong. I was quite happy about that. The very word “health” has been bracketed in the draft text of what is now being negotiated which means it will be deleted. What is contentious about wanting to protect health?

Hopefully I will get in tomorrow to continue working from the inside. One of the RINGOs asked for a formal statement that the NGOs have been treated poorly (which we have) and that it is “unacceptable” and cannot be so in the future, using the rhetoric heard on the floor. The constituency responded that it was not the UN’s fault but rather the host county, Denmark, so we had to couch our statements carefully if at all? I am suspect of that message, that the UN is not a fault and believe it to be an effort not to irritate the big gorilla. However, I will be here at 0:dark thirty in the morning to make my best effort to get inside. It worked today, but each day the rules change.

Delegate from China

As the second week begins, logistics are increasingly difficult. Right now the rumor is that the G77 is walking out (that includes China). All of the public briefings have been cancelled which is not a good sign. (They did not walk; negotiations were suspended for some hours but have now resumed and are expected to go far into the wee hours of morning.)

It took over 3 hours just to get into the meetings this morning. We all stood out in the cold. Those who were trying to register shivered for an unbelievable 6 hours before getting in. After I arrived, they actually stopped letting the Metro stop at the station where the Conference is located and delegaqtes had to walk from another Metro station to the Bella Center.  I sit in a session now in which they tell us that they are limiting the access for the next days down to only 90 people by Friday from civil society (out of thousands) who are allowed access to the center.

The problem is that all the people who came and will not be able to participate at all are very distressed. The reason is because the heads of state are bringing huge entourages; security is also a reason.  The Danish police are pulling 16 hour shifts which means they have rather short fuses. The mood is geting more serious and secretive. With the likelihood of any binding agreements evaporating by the hour, the posturing has turned to finance, reparations of “climate debt,” procedural issues that keep or release countries like China, Brazil and India from being considered developing countries that are eligible for financial aid, and other political maneuvers that have very little to do with mitigation or adaptation to climate change  – the ostensible reason we are here.

40,000 have requested admittance; 15,000 can get into the center. 10,000 government delegates and their entourages plus 4,000 media leaves only 1,000 for all of the NGOs (like me) to get in for the rest of the week. Access is getting less and less; and texts of the ongoing proposals are not available for any of us outside the country delegates.

The status of the press during the rest of the week will also be limited, but we are not told how many. I’ll be going very early to try to secure one more of the precious passes. The health coalition from Europe arrived today and we had meetings with the World Health Organization and others for most of the afternoon. I am the ONLY research NGO represented in the entire health entourage. The rest are in the environmental NGO constituency. We’ll be working inside (those who can get in) and outside over these final days. Most of the “real” work will be for COP 16 in Mexico City in 2010 so that health gets back into the conversation.

This is definately a lot of work. Next year, I need to take help. Maybe an army!

COP 15 President

The largest climate change march in history is on its way to its destination outside this building. On monitors throughout the Center, we periodically stop to check the progress. At least there are no broken windows yet. That is good, says one of my colleagues. It will conclude with a candelight vigil hosted by Desmund Tutu. 

The UN officials  have decided to now limit the number of people who can get in for the remainder of the conference. Security is getting tighter as the ministers arrive starting today in advance of the heads of state mid next week. Each admitted organization gets a limited number of passes that is supposedly far less than their admitted numbers. One international organization with multiple branches had 800 people here only 400 of whom can even enter the Center for the remainder of the Summit. I stood in yet one more line for one more pass – apparently we are so small that our allottment doubled and I have two! Anyone care to join me?  I can hear some of you thinking… and of course it makes no sense.

I am writing from inside the science plenary – just where you’d expect me to be. The level of politicized science exemplifies why science and policy have such a difficult time getting together. We sit here with our translation headphones (those translators are doing a marvelous and very difficult job with some of the languages),typing away on our computers looking ever so officious. A young woman next to me was sent by her London legal firm to comment on the legal matters attendent to the Summit decisions. We both understood that there are no legal opinions to be rendered from draft negotion documents that have no legal language and had a good laugh. The good news is, her boss heads the Royal Commission on Climate Change in the UK and may be interested in our Consortium on Climate Change and Population Health. I am, as they say, “working it.”  It was wise to have agendas outside the negotiations to avoid disappointment on a number of levels. Mine is to recruit for, and publicize,  our Consortium which is my diversion when I begin to feel overwhelmed with politicalspeak or distressed with the progress.

And then there are the journalists. I speak here as a card carrying member of the 4th estate (mine through the National Association of Science Writers) that these are by far the most unruly folks inside the Conference. One blog lurker (who shall remain nameless unless they choose not to be)  informed me about  a particularly vocal conservative journalist who was sanctioned for verbally assaulting a member of the IPCCC who would not answer his questions.  As a journalist by training, I must say that one of the things this gentleman and many other media in attendance seem to forget is that the UN is under no obligation to take questions from any of us — civil society or media — and if we in any way disrupt the proceedings we are subject to sanction. This is a negotiation not a public event. The press seems to forget that we all agreed to this as a condition of admittance, and in forgetting they create an atmosphere that restricts access for all of us trying to do the work of the Summit – provide input into the negotiations.  And to that I say shame on them.

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I left the Center around 6PM. Apparently the protesters who marched in all decided to take the Metro home. All but the 40 or so who were arrested.  It was truly sardines in a can — a can which stopped somewhere between stations for in interinable amount of time during which we got to intimately know the weave of the fibers of the coats of our neighbors. Now I understand why they gave us buttons that read “thank you for using public transportation!”  Thank you, indeed.

Jeppe confirmed (without prompting leading me to believe this just might be true) that the Danes are not particularly  tolerant of foreigners. Interesting that they should have given their town up for two whole weeks to the lot of us! So much so that their current government instituted a law that no Dane under the age of 24 may marry a foreigner (of course there are ways around that for “special” people) and if a Dane who was not born in Denmark or otherwise has significant ties to another country marries a full blooded foreigner (the example given was a Pakistani) then the couple can not live in Denmark. It seems they go to great lengths to keep their country homogenous. As to the reason why they hosted COP15, I think that answer came from the director of the Viking Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland whom on the flight from Seattle to Iceland: the Vikings were first, last and always interested in commerce! And if they did decide to do a little pillage and village burning along the way, so be it. This event certainly put money in the Danish coffers. They continue to pillage in their own, more 21st century fashion — the prices are exhorbitant on top of which they levy a 25% VAT (value added tax.)

Very Large Pottery in Roskilde: Not a Camera Angle Trick

On the train out of the city, the English signage evaporated and all conversations were Danish. I had to ask the ticket taker to be sure I was on the correct train and not just out for an adventure in the countryside (which would have also been fine so I couldn’t lose).

Thanks to each of you who are following and have responded. I greatly appreciate the encouragement. Off to prepare for tomorrow’s events.

Other Delegates

Today starts out with meeting my new “neighbor” in the flat next door – the President of the Consumer Information Network,a Kenyan who is lending me his computer connector as we sit in the Center trying to make our technology work. He has interest in our Consortium work because much of Kenya’s issues center around food and health.

We are off for sessions to try to discover how to be in multiple places at once.   You see in the photo that we have all sorts of delegates here.

Our very own Washington State ex-Governor now Cabinet member Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is presenting today.  Our state is well represented.

Whenever I attend a conference of any size, I inevitably have those moments during the first days of wondering “what am I doing here?” The larger the gathering, the more intense the wondering. And this is a big gathering. People scurry around and we all attend speeches full of seemingly meaningless introductory rhetoric that we’ve all heard before. I meet a few interesting people. We exchange business cards and pledge to meet later in the week for drinks or dinner. And then it happens: something begins to break open.  

Yesterday I heard the distinct cracking sound signaling the starting of the break when the little country of Tuvalu, one of the Pacific nations that is losing its real estate rapidly due to sea level rise, challenged the process and the power of the protocol being established by the Danish leader of the COP 15 meetings – and won. On the “big stage” the shift started. I listened to a couple of media figures broadcasting live from the back of the room. One was in Japanese, so I cannot comment on his content But the English speaker, who sounded possibly American, I did understand. And I thought, “are we in the same meeting?” He was reporting what was being said but fanning the flame of supposed intent, linking his comments neither to the actual information in the documents the delegates were discussing nor to the underlying political shifts going on  in the room.  

In order to hear, sometimes one actually has to be present. I love what we can do with technology, but this is a prime example of the difference that “being there” makes. The feel, the shift in tensions and in power is so much more than just fervor of rhetoric. In a gathering of this size, ethnic diversity and intensity, the communication occurs on so many levels.  This conference has a very impressive official technology partnership group that, among other things,  allows for telepresence in many side meetings and other open conference activities. One of their presenters touted that this was how such meetings as COP would be held in the future – totally virtually. If so, we will lose significant nuances. I hope we continue to use the right hammer for the right job.

A short while later, to a packed house that required  a live video broadcast in the next room to accommodate only a fraction of the people trying to get in, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced her ruling  on what is now being labeled the “endangerment findings” that formally acknowledges the links of greenhouse gas emissions to human health problems – which means that the EPA can begin regulate the emissions of those gasses in a number of ways.  It does not, however, mean the EPA can override Congress on a climate bill. A Brazilian delegate standing behind me asked if she as at the Cabinet level, trying to figure out if she had enough power to effect what she was saying. Turns out he knows and respects  Brazilian Senator Ney Sussana whom I met in the Philippines in 2007 and because of that connection he actively engaged with my explanation of our system and how power works. An idealistic young environmentalist in front of me tried to answer his question but was, sadly, not only wrong about Jackson’s position in the hierarchy but more critically uninformed about the power structure and what was really going on. The Brazilian slipped me his card and said he wanted to learn more. His card shows that he is a country consultant, with offices in Brazil and in Vienna. ( Vienna? What is Brazil’s business in Vienna? I hope we meet later so I can find out more.) The US position for the COP 15 meetings and for Obama’s arrival next week was being set yesterday. It was orchestrated; it was finely tuned. Some of the environmental NGOs left during the speech saying it was just “staged”  – they knew they wouldn’t get to ask Jackson any questions and therefore missed the value of the whole event.

What particularly interested me, especially because of our Consortium on Climate Change and Population Health, was that, at the end of the day, what our administration decided to hang its hat in these climate negotiations on was what people actually care about — their own health.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out…stay tuned!