COP15 Diary-Day 1, 14 Dec 2009

Frustration, overwhelming and inspiring: the first day of COP15 in Copenhagen in a nutshell.

After spending almost three hours in freezing Scandinavian weather outside the Bella Center where the conference is being held we finally got through the security check, into the photo taking booth and finally getting our holy non-governmental organization badges. What a feeling, we were finally formally part of the conference that was going, and will, change the world and we stormed the conference centre with our lime coloured sweaters. Looking back at the three hours spent in the queue for the registration, perhaps that time could give us some reflection on how slow and inefficient the UN actually is. As one wonderful Israeli woman next to me pointed out, the official delegates time wasted in the queue would add up to around 10,000 working hours totally. Imagine if all of those hours would have been spent on environmental efforts.

Once inside the conference we noticed that changing the world was not going to be that easy. People were running around the chickens, hippies were mixing with politicians and it was simply very difficult getting a grasp on what was going on in there. Perhaps the official delegates shared my feeling. The conference centre is divided into different areas with one area reserved for NGOs and exhibitions, another for the official meetings and a third for the delegations offices. It is hard to explain, but in one way it if very organized but in another way I would also label it as quite disorganized. But what could one expect from such a colossal meeting with everyone from average Joe to President Obama visiting.

On from the first day of the official meetings towards the Danish Film institute for some climate talk with the famous Al Gore. Yay! Very inspiring and mind refreshing from the day’s earlier talks, Gore is truly Jesus of Climate Change and we are all his followers in this religion. The most mind boggling that I recall from the speech was the fact that one hour of all the sunlight reaching the earth’s surface could be stored and transferred for one year of energy consumption – FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. Think about that kids when you are getting a tan! Now we all need some sleep for another day of saving the ice bears, the elephants, the people everywhere, the melting glaciers, the oceans, the rainforests, the monkeys, the red snapper, the rivers as well as the panda.

Maybe we should start with saving ourselves?

Posted by Philip.