5 December 2009 second post

News from the inside

It’s a small ‘climate’ world!

This morning we went to pick up our COP15 observer passes from the Bella Centre - there was a strange sense of stillness about the place, the calm before the storm perhaps! Clusters of police men and women were strolling around the venue and a rather overweight labrador sniffer dog gave us the once over on our route to the registration desks. Much to my relief our names were all registered and with little trouble we picked up our passes and confirmed our attendance as official observers to perhaps the most important global gathering of our generation. We now need to trawl through the 33 pages that list all COP15 side events taking place over the next few weeks and will fill up our diaries - expectations are high as organisations from around the world prepare to influence, lobby and encourage negotiators to reach an ambitions climate deal.

The Climate Exchange continues to go well and we already have several hundred pledges to be passed onto Connie Hedegaard come Sunday in our presentation of the visitor’s ‘Calls for Climate Action’. Tonight there is going to be a party for all exhibitors, which will include ‘Gløgg’ (hot wine), hopefully a bit of boogieing and a performance from a trapeze artist (very excited about that - allows me hark back to childhood dreams of joining the circus). We have made friends with a lovely Belgian chap from the Ecover stand, Bart, who has passed on several interesting bits of information - his mother invented the brand name Ecover and in Belgium, the term ‘eco-warrior’ is substituted for ‘goat hair sock wearer’.

On our way back to the Metro this morning I bumped into an old colleague from Delhi and a friend from university, both going to COP15 - it is indeed a small climate world! Over the next few days more than 15,000 people are expected to descend on Copenhagen, a rather daunting thought I can imagine for the people of the city but a rather exciting prospect for us to meet, share ideas and network with people from across the world who seek a positive and ambitious outcome from the COP15.

Freya Seath
Researcher to the Director