Given the estimated 170,000 COP15 participants at a venue built for 15,000, it was best to arrive early at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Still, queuing was part of the education. You could meet people from nearly 200 nations, most looking jetlagged but energized. And the world's varied apparel was on display, from African robes to Indian saris to endangered-animal costumes favored by a group of Chinese schoolchildren.
Reporters and bloggers were ubiquitous. At one point a Danish TV station interviewed a polar bear while the Climate Action Network bestowed its Fossil of the Day award—to the theme from Jurassic Park—on the country that had done the most to obstruct progress that day. (The United States, Australia and Japan won more than once, but it was Canada that won Fossil of the Year.) Chants of protest or applause occasionally punctuated the dull background roar in the cavernous venue.
Two things particularly struck me. The first was the great resource divide between delegations. For example, Bolivia, which announced the most ambitious cuts for greenhouse gas emissions in the world—49 percent below 1990 levels by 2017—had no media resources to get the word out; they relied on volunteers to write press releases. Even worse off was Tuvalu, one of the small island nations that potentially face total destruction due to climate change. They too had to depend on volunteers to represent their interests. At the same time, the Bella Center was reportedly charging more than $100,000 to rent a room at the conference. Only the better-endowed NGOs could afford to put on side events.
Second, press coverage differed strikingly from what was going on. At least for the first week, the mood was one of cautious optimism, not deadlocked disaster. There was excitement in the air and seemingly a collective will to get something important done, at least among the participants. Stanford Law School assistant professor Michael Wara, JD '06, reported learning that a Chinese student jettisoned his personal belongings at the airport rather than leave behind the publications he'd picked up at COP15.
If only the delegates could have displayed such dedication and commitment during the second week, there might have been no need for COP16.
