Dispatch from Copenhagen

Heidi Van Genderen
Senior Energy Advisor with the Worldwatch Institute

It's just past six in the evening here in Copenhagen and the helicopters are hovering over the city - a nightly event here thus far. That signals the fact that today's protest march is still underway.

For those of you with whom I may not be current -- I am working as a Senior Energy Advisor with the Worldwatch Institute and as such, had the opportunity to travel to Copenhagen as a member of the Worldwatch delegation.

It's not looking good for an agreement as I write this, though the reports are that all the key world leaders are remaining past their declared departure time in search of the elusive København Accord. The key issues remain agreement on specific GHG emission reductions (China remains strong in its desire to see reduction in carbon intensity, rather than real reductions), the financing of it all (the $100 billion per year global fund that would help developing countries, in particular, reach those reductions, and those ever elusive mechanisms around transparency, verification and monitoring that would keep all nations on the up and up.

The President arrived looking well rested after a red eye flight on Air Force One, but disappointed most with whom I've spoken today in his remarks. But, Michael Eckhardt with the American Council for Renewable Energy believes that Obama struck just the right note of impatience and is now in the Bella Center (location for the negotiations) sending word to other country leaders that they just can't send him home empty handed if they ever want to see the U.S. Congress act.

The UNFCCC was a bit overwhelmed in its organizing of all that transpired at the Bella Center. They apparently allowed 45,000 NGO delegates and others to believe they were accredited and would be registered for the pass that allowed one into the center. Unfortunately, the Center can only hold 15,000 bodies under its fire code, so a problem arose as more and more people arrived as the second week of the negotiations started. Angry mobs gathered outside the Center which led the city to close the metro stop at the Center, and precipitated diminishing numbers of passes being issued to each delegation. Worldwatch went from 14 to 7 overnight, and then was told there were none for the organization at all starting yesterday. Security concerns for the world leaders drove a great deal of this also -- but left a lot of disappointed people outside of the proceedings. From my colleagues who have attended several of the COP meetings, I know that interest and travel to the meetings has grown consistently through the years. (That gives George Will fodder for observing the irony of the carbon emissions produced by all that travel of course -- but hey, I recognize that irony, too.)

The Bella Center itself is vast and filled with not only the major plenary hall, but regional areas (e.g., the EU, the U.S. Pavillion and so on), and vast halls filled with exhibitors ranging from every NGO you can think of to countries to some private sector exhibitors as well. For those of us who have worked on these issues for as long as we have, it was also old home week for the numbers of friends and colleagues seen. Many grand reunions.

There were constant "side events" staged at the Bella Center, and while entry to the plenary was allowed early on, that also ended early which meant that people gathered around television screens to listen to speeches of note instead. I wish I'd had a better tutorial on how and what earlier on as I would have availed myself of more opportunities -- and/or known how to both judge and find those that I wanted to attend more readily and easily.

Breaking news: President Obama is now meeting with the Chinese Premier - a "highly unusual" event.

Al Gore launched an effort to use the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010 as the deadline by which the U.S. Senate should act on climate legislation. Gore has also launched an effort to move the next scheduled COP in Mexico City up from November 2010 to July 2010 because, he noted, "the imperative is too great." It will be interesting to see if Mr. Gore can organize some momentum in this regard.

Copenhagen itself was filled with signs of the big event taking place within its city limits everywhere. From a huge globe that signaled "Hopenhagen" (and covered with private sector advertising thanks to Coke and others) just off the Radhus, to huge banners and artwork hanging off buildings, to the Greenpeace ship moored along one waterway -- you certainly couldn't miss what was taking place here these past couple of weeks.

It snowed day before yesteday and stuck -- a fairly unusual event in the past 25 years according to one local who has lived here for much longer than that. It's fairly treacherous going with the snow having now turned to slush for the most part, though the temperature has remained quite chilly.

That hasn't slowed down many of the cyclists. While cars coming at me the wrong way was one of the most pressing things to pay attention to as a pedestrian in Edinburgh, here it is definitely cyclists! Huge numbers of people cycle and routinely leave their bicycles unlocked, wherever they land. I've taken a number of photos and will get them up on flick'r for your viewing pleasure - though not until I get back to the States.

This is a lovely city - the very old juxtaposed against a lot of Danish modern design. But I admit to being more directionally challenged here than almost anyplace I remember visiting. Maps don't really match reality and while the Danes are a friendly lot who stop easily when asked for directions, they are also reasonably vague in describing specific direction. But given the lattice of pedestrian streets and vehicle streets that are anything but a grid, it's somewhat understandable.

English is spoken by virtually everyone, but Danish is preferred by those who live here, no doubt. I mangle their language and feel badly that I had no time to learn more than a handful of words prior to landing. Tak (thanks) is about it really. For the most part, people here have assumed I'm either Danish or German and speak to them on one or the other before responding, in friendly fashion, once I blush and smile and declare "English?!"

Public transit is quite good and we were all given a transit pass as a delegation perk. There are buses, a metro and a regional train system. The metro is fairly new -- just 7 or 8 years old and was built quite deeply underground. The trains run frequently and once you get the hang of the system, quite easily done. The signage for both the regional trains and the metro are pretty tucked away, however -- not nearly as evident as any other system on which I've been a passenger.

Denmark is a very affluent country, and Copenhagen is not cheap. Meals, in particular, have been an impressive expenditure. Shopping has been kept to a minimum -- much as I'd love to be bringing back more of the very cool Danish fashion to our girls.

Several from Worldwatch were put up at a two star hotel near Norreport -- pretty basic, but fun to gather at breakfast each morning and listen to the conversations of other international travelers who were here for the COP or related events as well. This morning's favorite conversation was a group from South America and the UK plotting revolution - including a proposal that revolution be plotted through those who are groomed to be U.S. leaders at Harvard or Yale. "What better audience than that?" one fellow queried.

I spent the afternoon at the Klima Forum which was the "peoples' forum" -- an alternative to the festivities at the Bella Center. In addition to a variety of events (including one this afternoon moderated by Chip Comins of ARE Day and included Bill Becker of PCAP, David Orr of Oberlin, Mike Eckhardt of ACORE and Bill McKibben of 350.org) there were a lot of grassroots NGOs who had exhibits there. Seeing and meeting and talking with a number of people from elsewhere in the world has reinforced the fact that politics are pretty quiet in the good old U.S.A. on this issue. Climate change is much more front and center almost everywhere else in the world it seems, while the numbers who believe it is real continues to decline in America.

Admittedly, I've found myself thinking a lot these past 8 or 9 days about the efficacy of approaching the issue of climate change straight on, versus addressing it primarily through the opportunity and challenge of transforming the energy economy. The latter is now underway to some degree while the UNFCCC proceedings remain mired in the wording of international agreement that has no enforcement mechanism.

But, I'm rooting for progress, no matter the avenue.

Gladly heading to DC tomorrow. We shall see what an all nighter may bring, or not, from here.

Happy, happy holidays to you all!

Heidi Van Genderen is a Senior Energy Advisor with the Worldwatch Institute