As the news has been heralding, the Bella center is filling to capacity. Yesterday, we stood in line for three hours to register as NGO observers. Once we were inside, though, it certainly was a sight to behold. The Bella center is actually a mash-up of the actual convention center and numerous temporary buildings linked into a single complex. There are halls with booths for NGO groups, meeting halls, open public spaces, and offices for delegations, NGOs, and IGOs (intergovernmental organizations). The pubic spaces are regularly the scene of seemingly-spontaneous protests, while numerous talks, seminars, and side events are held in meeting rooms off of the public halls. As observers, we get to sit in and interact in these side events, hosted by NGOs or UN bodies, and interact with the range of attendants in the center. The range of humanity is impressive, from legions of bright-eyed organizers to delegates from every single country; there are even rock-star moments when figure like Al Gore and Bill McKibben grace the halls. And the actual talks that are supposedly deciding the fate climate change? They are hidden away in meeting halls where few, if any, observers are allowed to enter.
The COP15 is certainly a bizarre balance: partly glitz of international showman ship, part desperate plea from LDCs (least developed countries) and their allies for any sort of movement on an agreement. The pleas from scientists and policy makers in the side events are sincere: we cannot afford uncoordinated action any longer. I attended several talks today about financing renewable energy projects, both in Europe and in the LDCs, and the feeling I have is that thousands of small projects are making progress but they are not yet pulling together to create the momentum for change that is needed in the Bella center. The dark humor of the conference’s talks is embodied in the Fossil Awards: 500 NGOs vote daily to decide which countries are doing the most to derail progress on any sort of climate agreement and the results are presented in a Hollywood style ceremony. Is the human energy present to effect change? Certainly, but we all need concerted country-level leadership to put them momentum to use.
See a collection of photos from December 14th on Picasa: