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Highlights from the side events

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

INFORMATIVE NOTE: The conference is organized in negotiation sessions and side events. Side events are held by organizations representing all sectors of society, they happen inside the conference center or outside. Negotiation sessions can only be attended by parties and the press. Side events inside the conference can be attended by registered participants. Off-site side events can be attended by all. Rice students only attend side events inside and out of the conference center, and follow the negotiations on live stream webcasts.

HIGHLIGHTS:
1. UN manages to make registration Hell on Earth with waiting times up to 6 hours in the Danish cold.
2. Registrants display a great level of resilience and temperance, but one of us falls sick.
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3. Negotiators are incapable to reach agreements and activist outside the Bella Centers protest. In contrast, societal sectors represented inside the conference sport a constructive “let’s get to business” approach and patience over the complexities of the negotiations.
4. Sectors represented in the side events: Agriculture, Manufacturing Industry, Transportation, Finance, NGOs, and the Church.
5. Sectors have well defined programs and little non-sense talk. They identify capabilities, loopholes, and critical needs.

6. Let me say it again: Very constructive attitudes among the sectors (in contrast to the ones among country delegations).  All sectors see opportunities. Overall, there is a feeling that it can be done.

7. National institutions also held side events at the different national centers: The US held events on the science while EU focused on policy, technological and financial tools for mitigation and adaptation, reflecting the differences between the stage of negotiation at both sides of the ocean.
8. We meet with Dr. Jerry Schnoor, editor of ES&T, and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Dr. Lubchenco gives a talk on the impacts of climate change on the oceans based on NOAA measurements.jane_jerry1

Welcome

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Climate is a complex system, global politics even more, and economics also has its thing. You put them all together and you have the UNFCCC. The students will write on specific topics of their choosing. Before taking off to Copenhagen, I gave them a set of readings so they could build a solid background on the issue. The readings include news and articles from CNN, BBC, The Economist, Science, Nature and ES&T magazines, as well as website, specialized reports and peer-reviewed article contents. I myself learnt a big deal reading through those pieces, and thought I post “my digestion” here.
In the section “Basics” I have tried to give answers to some of the questions most of us have. I don’t always quote my source, but I can provide it on an individual basis if anyone is interested or you can try to find it at the section “Learn More”, where I give you the links to the original sources and other more elaborate analyses. You can also find links to most of the COP15 logistics-related websites. My sections are always under construction and you can contribute to expand them. I encourage you to submit your questions, since I or some of the students might be able to answer them. I also encourage you to suggest sources of information if you think they can help. Since we are trying to be productive, please do not send anything on the science of climate change. COP15 is about policy and assumes climate change is happening and caused in part by anthropogenic GHG emissions, which we should reduce. The debate goes on both at the scientific and at the layman spheres (although at different levels). The first has a forum at the IPCC, a body that comprises numerous scientists including many members of the National Academies of Science, NOAA, NASA, etc. I leave it to them to decide and they have decided it is happening based on many different sets of data and analyses (not only the controversial ones from the University of East Anglia). The layman debate inevitably lags behind in terms of information and is mostly based on immobile personal ideological biases, which is not what I want to discuss here. There is plenty on the Internet where to find answers to common skeptical questions. I can recommend this for a start: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8376286.stm.
If you really want to learn about what precedes and goes on at the amazing effort of COP15 you should be able to find useful information here.
I hope that is the case.
Rosa