Saturday 12 December by Simon Molesworth

This Saturday morning I attended the official opening of “Bright Green” a parallel green industry expo occuring over two days this weekend. The exhibition hall was filled with thousands of people, but the opening ceremony was limited to a few hundred. Given the range of innovative approaches to sustainably managing our environment, in particular energy production, waste utilisation, emission controls and water management which were on exhibition, one could justifiably think that mankind’s ingenuity may one day extricate humanity from the Climate Change problems it faces. However, the critical issue is always, how much will it cost, who will pay, and whether the Developing Nations will be assisted by those more able to afford it.

The Opening event was particularly noteworthy as it was addressed by the President of the UN Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change Dr Rajendri Pachauri, the Danish Prime Minister and the EU Acting President. Most interestingly, they opened with a four way 20 minute conversation between a Danish interviewer and Crown Prince Frederich of Denmark, Crown Prince Harken of Norway and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. The three royals proved to be highly motivated environmentalists, calling for real action from COP15, while reporting on a fact-finding study tour that the three of them had carried out in Greenland and across the Actic Circle. After the opening, the three royals spent the next hour or more moving from display booth to display booth in the exhibition, followed by a huge crowd of media and onlookers. I could not but reflect on what a wonderful way of attracting, probably worldwide, media attention to the critical issues being faced at COP15.  

Dr Pachauri, the EU Acting President and the Danish Prime Minister also gave impassioned addresses, all focussing on the essential need to achieve a whole of community approach to overcoming Climate Change challenges, hence the essential requirement to partner with industry to find innovative green technological answers. 

Greetings from COP15, Friday Report from Simon Molesworth

I have just left the official Australian Government briefing of Australian delegates attending COP15. This briefing proved to be very useful as it provided an up to the minute status of the official parties’ negotiations. There is no doubt that the intensity of activity has palpably increased within the Bella Centre – an observation that I would not have thought possible. We were informed that there are now over 33,000 official delegates present, a fact that is becoming increasingly obvious with the human traffic jams at all presentations at all displays and in all public areas. The atmospherics of the occasion are extraordinary.

There is a growing sense of anticipation, largely reflected by the uncompromising nature of the demands for real action from more and more nations. It is clear that there is enormous sensitivity to the enormity of the Climate Change impacts on the Developing Nations, with a number of the small island nations, particularly from the Pacific, being hailed as brave heroes in standing up for their existence. The African groupings are becoming particularly vocal with more and more being very apparent with their intense corridor and meeting place meetings which are occuring all over the Centre. Mirroring the intensity of the negotiations have been the growing number of demonstrations of groups of people in traditional costume (in the case of indigenous peoples) or in costume (in the case of activist groups such as Greenpeace etc). There is little doubt that there is un underlying anger, increasingly being vetilated in the presentations of the NGOs, that it is the poor countries of the world who are most suffering from Climate Change and that any compromise hurts them most. The pleas of nation after nation in their presentations to the plenary sessions to act now and not delay have really hit home, underpinning a growing sense of urgency to avoid weak compromises. 

The Environment Ministers from Nations across the world are starting to arrive in their droves and they will be joined by their Heads of State from next Wednesday. At our Australian Government briefing we were informed that, as at this morning, the number of world leaders who have now confirmed their intention to attend and speak next week has now numerically passed any previous UN meeting. In short, by next Thursday, COP15 will have present the greatest number of world leaders ever assembled in one place. The anticipation of something real being achieved has now increased, reflected by the report that the Danish presidency of COP15 (the Danish Environment Minister) making it clear that: “a good political agreement which will have immediate operational effect that will lead to a legally binding agreement” is the only acceptable outcome. The fact that so many world leaders have now decided, over the last few days, to attend tends to reinforce the fact that the global community is running out of patience. Much is being made of the fact that a strong united front is being expected from the EU Nations, the leaders of which have been meeting off-site at Brussells these last two days so as to determine an agreed position, although there is some doubt whether France will be quite so committed as the others.

There is huge pressure upon President Barrack Obama to really deliver when he appears next Friday. The pressure is being made more intense by the apparent willingness of some nations such as China and India to go further than originally anticipated. Many of the protests and displays are directed against the Nations seen to be under-committing, or potentially likely to under commit. Sadly, first and foremost amongst those being subject to regular condemnation are the USA, Canada and Australia. However, with the decision of President Obama to arrive and speak on the last day, there is general agreement that that decision is seen as being strategically very significant and more likely to signal that something more than originally anticipated will be offered. When pressed in our briefing with the question as to how credible was the growing belief that a real outcome will be achieved, the senior Australian negotiator replied “..absolutely possible, indeed we should see a strong outcome”. He said that much will depend on the intensity of the negotiations over the weekend, but he said there was a clear determination of the Danish COP15 presidency and the Secretariat that only such an outcome will be acceptable.

Update from Oliver Maurice, Wednesday 9 December

After a session in the computer centre with Simon who had been having problems sending e mails from the centre with his new computer, I went back to the Side Events stands and made the following contacts:

Panos London, where I spoke to Natalie Herzhoff , their Environment Programme Assistant. Through their website they can put us in touch with the media in at least 100 developing countries and can arrange interviews accordingly. This could be a very useful contact for promoting our work in Africa, parts of Asia and S America for example.

Bill Liao, Special Envoy for Sustainable Development and the Environment, from the Office of the Prime Minister for St Kitts and Nevis. He was giving a talk on how permaculture can save the planet, details of which can be found on www.weforest.com  He gave an example of the successful transition of a large area of desert in Jordan into forest  by using waste products as a mulch, and not necessarily solely organic. There is no National Trust in the country and he thought it unlikely that one would be formed in the short term owing to their precarious financial position.

REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. The Little Redd Book is a guide to the UN negotiations on these reductions. REDD aims to help halt deforestation which apparently causes 20% of the world’s carbon emissions – more than the entire global transport sector.

REDD comes under the Global Canopy Programme (www.globalcanopy.org)  Their Network and External Relations Manager comes from Brazil and although I did not meet her I have her contact details and will get in touch to establish if she knows what conservation organisations exist there.

And finally… as I reflect back on the last 4 days I have no doubt that INTO having a presence at these talks has been of great benefit. Sceptics may criticise us for our carbon footprint in getting there and back from different parts of the globe but INTO has worked out the cost of the carbon offset and the money is to be put into a fund for special projects related to mitigation and adaptation in the face of global warming.

Being in Copenhagen has been a wonderful experience. The people could not have been more friendly or helpful. I defy any citizen of Copenhagen not to be aware of  climate change since every square in the city centre has some form of art installation, or a nightly rock band concert  to say nothing of all the public buildings having events most nights. At the Metro stations and at the airport most of the hoardings had something to say about global warming, CO2 emissions or climate change generally – and the city has set a good example with zero-rated taxis and driverless trains.

There is a multitude of follow-ups to be done from the contacts made and from the lessons learned so that INTO can improve its position now and at future conferences of this kind.

As a postscript it was amusing to find so many acronyms for all the different organisations and in particular as a means to distinguish between different NGOs; thus among the ‘observer’ organisations, as is INTO, there were YOUNGOs (Youth), TUNGOs (Trade Union), BINGOs (Business and Industry) and RINGOs (Research and Independent). Rather to my surprise they did not have acronyms for Woman and Gender NGOs nor Farmers NGOs but no doubt in Mexico they will have added WANGOs and FANGOs!!

Update from Alison Dodd, INTO Policy Development Officer (Monday 7 – Wednesday 9 December)

On Monday morning the INTO team met early to discuss their plan as to how best to tackle COP15. The first step was to get registered, which, unfortunately for Simon and me, involved a four hour wait outside the Bella Centre in the brisk Copenhagen air. However, all was not lost as we met a number of interesting people in the queue and conducted a few short television interviews. After the exhausting process of entering the centre, we then spent some time looking around the Bella Centre and getting a sense of things to come.

On Tuesday we returned to the Bella Centre to engage in COP15 with renewed vigour. 

I attended a number of the plenary sessions to get a sense of how the COP15 operates. These are sessions are conducted in huge auditoriums, with the many tables of representatives, video screens and teams of interpreters all adding to the sense of occasion. I then attended the daily NGO briefing provided by the Australian government delegation, in order to get an insider view of how the conference was proceeding. It was great to represent INTO along with the many other NGOs and industry bodies present, including WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Climate Action Network Australia.

During the afternoon I toured around the extensive exhibition area, meeting and speaking with stall holders. Among the many interesting seminars that I attended during the day included one by the Climate Action Network, speaking about climate change mitigation programs that it has facilitated in Africa. In the evening, I attended a climate change in business networking event in Copenhagen, meeting a number of people in Danish industry.

I took a brief break from proceedings on Wednesday morning to spend some time having a look around at the many beautiful buildings and palaces in Copenhagen, as well as sampling some Danish design stores and Danish pastries!

Wednesday afternoon for me was spent attending a number of fascinating presentations about topics including the impacts of climate change on the island nation of Kiribati, how carbon finance can be used to supplement sustainable development projects in developing nations and methods for assisting farmers to adopt their agricultural practices to change climatic conditions.

A particular highlight of Wednesday for me was seeing Princess Mary as she arrived at a fashion event in Copenhagen, which I stumbled upon while meeting friends outside the town hall in the evening.

Wednesday 9 December, by Oliver Maurice

I will send you a longer version of today’s events later but just to let you know that I have just come out of a very interesting seminar entitled Jobs – Energy – Climate; How do we reap the huge potential in energy – wasteful buildings?
 
The speakers were Eelco van Heel , CEO of the Rockwool Group, Jens Laustsen, Senior Energy Policy Analyst for the International Energy Agency and Kim Karstensen, Leader of the WWF’s Global Climate Initiative. It was the latter who impressed me although the other 2 were very good. Kim immediately made the link between inefficient buildings and the damage to the conservation of wildlife etc, through global warming, ice melts and so on.
 
I spoke to him afterwards and told him about INTO and explained that his message fitted exactly with our own statements in the Dublin Declaration – he knew all about the NT! I asked him if he would be interested to speak at Victoria in 2011 and promised to send him details – he was a great presenter!
 
More at midnight or sooner but Simon and I are now going to a function in the city centre hosted by Martin Chilcott of 2degrees.

Later:I have just returned to my base having had dinner with Martin Chilcott of Two Degrees and his colleague Alex Lancaster, who I was sitting next to and turned out to be Tricia Lancaster’s daughter!! Also present were Angela Palmer MA RCA, who had put together the Ghost Forestart installation in a main square in Copenhagen city, fresh from Trafalgar Sq. A wonderful exhibition of about 9 tree trunks and roots from a Ghanaian sustainable rainforest.

Tuesday 7 December, by Geoffrey Read

The Culture Futures programme continued with several series of action-focussed case studies of climate change remediation measures. Several were of particular interest, including a UK based program (Julia’s Bicycle) now well underway with the media and cultural industries, successfully promoting GREEN events and media products (an example was CD sleeves now being produced by the major media firms in card and not plastic) and an interesting global program led by the Bulgarian based International Council for Cultural Centers.  I was able to hold a series of INTO introducing and promoting discussions.  The next stage of the Culture Futures programme which has a broad and varied participation grouping will be discussed today. Given the sound technical and policy basis of the discussion, I believe it will be an important group for INTO to work with.  INTO could be effective in promoting best practice in grassroots action and remediation activities for our members (possibly through Best Practice Notes, which would disseminate tangible assistance and guidance to members).

At the Bella Centre, we were able to continue to discuss INTO with a wide range of IGOs and NGOs. The individual booths were apparently booked in September and are not charged for by Bella (I was advised by the Centre Office).  INTO should consider a more visible participation at these future events, depending on content and possible outcomes.  The energy levels of the discussions and networking going on in this part of the Conference was impressive and infectious.
 
There was also a fine example of street protest in the Centre outside the main hall. Friends of the Earth (FOE) had a magican whose magic trick (with special words and phrases) was to make the carbon footprint from a big Jet (a model 747 Jumbo) disappear through carbon offsets.  BUT each time he and all the audience said/shouted the magic words and he whisked off the magican’s cloak covering the offending carbon footprinting jet, the jet and footprint refused to disappear.  FOE and many others believe carbon offsets is a sham.  The Street theatre was another fine example of Danish tolerance and media innovation!!

 
I managed to give the INTO COP 15 brochure to a number of key people.  Simon, Oliver and I had interesting discussions with the Climate Change Coordinator in the British Council, David Viner.  The Council has a strong and innovative Climate Change Programme, focussing in particular on youth (Young Climate Champions).  A fine role model for us all. 
 
Another good day at the Offfice!!!

Tuesday 8 December, by Oliver Maurice

More progress!  Simon has now had 3 interviews with Danish TV companies and one yesterday with a French channel, which went out last night, to go with my earlier one (today) with the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Whilst writing this a Kenyan from the Africa Youth Initiative sat next to me to eat his sandwich. He was very interested to hear about INTO and immediately told me that there was so much natural and cultural heritage in Kenya that needed protection and that he knew the Minister of Tourism (father of his best friend!) and through him could get to the Minister of Cultural  and Natural Heritage. It seems that I may need to call in on Kenya on my way back from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda next year!

Simon and I witnessed a rather moving African demonstration One Africa, One Voice, 1° referring to the need to cut global warming to that level we presumed. A lot of shouting the words in unison and dancing!. We then saw the Daily Fossil Award for the worst practice being awarded to the Ukraine but never discovered what they had done wrong!  (Ukraine won first place for having the worst carbon emissions reduction target in the world – Ed.)

Monday 7 December, by Oliver Maurice

I am in the Bella Centre having left (at 12 noon) Alison (Dodds, INTO’s voluntary Policy Development Officer) and Simon (Molesworth, INTO’s Chairman) outside in a mile long queue to register – it is now 4.20pm and they still have not made contact!! Geoff  has been at the National Gallery all day at Cultural Futures, co-sponsored by the British Council (see below). 

I have taken the opportunity to go round the various side events of the very many organisations who applied early enough for the space.  I have focused mainly on Africa and have so far handed out the INTO Climate Change document to 7 organisations and talked to many more including:

• WWF

• International Development Research Centre (IDRC) based in Ottawa but concerned with climate change and adaptation in Africa (the person I spoke to was from Senegal)

• Caribbean Community Climate Change Council

• The environmental programme manager for the UN Development programme from Barbados (who knew of the NT Barbados)

• Andrew Mazulu, a representative from Malawi who is going to put me in touch with the Minister of Culture re the need for a National Trust – he was dead keen on the idea

• Francophonie based in Paris but with offices in all Francophone countries (mainly Africa and Asia)

• and finally INWENT, a German organisation that funds capacity building with organisations involved in Climate Change

Simon and Alison have finally met up with me and we have between us photos which we will send later when reunited wiith our USB ports!
 
From a contented if not a little tired, and in Simon and Alison’s cases, frozen team at the Bella Centre!

Following a briefing meeting with the INTO COP team, I attended the Launch of the Culture Futures Symposium, held at the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen. This 3 day programme is one of the various side events being held as a way of engaging a wide range of experience in the COP 15 debates and intended future action.

Culture Futures is an international umbrella network of cultural and ecological organizations promoting the move of society to an ecological age as a response to climate change. Members of the informal network include the Asia Europe Foundation, The Danish Cultural Institute, the British Council, EUNIC, the RSA, the European Cultural Foundation, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Goethe Institute and ARUP. I gather they have been working together as an expanding group for about two years

The meeting was well attended by about 100 people. A background paper, “Cultural Transformations for an Ecological Age by 2050″ was provided which will be discussed in detail over the following days. There were then a series of presentation, reviewing the role of culture, and in particular the arts and design sectors, in roles addressing the challenges of climate change. The meeting was closed by the Danish Minister for Culture, who had also been a successful entrepreneur in her past.

Two key note papers in particular were very important in setting the scene and form for future action.

1. Peter Head, a director of ARUP (a well known international multi-sectoral consulting engineer) presented a stunning and thoughtful paper on strategies for moving to an Ecological Age (low carbon) by 2050. The paper was full of facts and well researched ideas, based on ARUP’s world wide experience and Peter Head’s Brunel Lecture. The paper is on the ARUP website.

2. Claus Leggewie of the German Government Advisory Council on Global Change and also a professor at a German think tank presented a rigorous paper on Politics, Power and Cultural Change. Very stark presentation of the challenges facing mankind. A similar article is posted here.

The discussion was lively, mainly seeking the best role for the arts and culture sectors in addressing the challenges. No clear solutions emerged, but may in the discussions over the next two days.

There was as part of the programme a brief musical interlude, and a very moving set of poems presented and read out by a Nobel-nominated Malaysian writer, Cecil Rajendra, addressing climate and social change issues.

The discussion was very lively, drawing from a range of opinions and backgrounds. Young people were well represented in the audience. Of note was a group of 25 “Climate Change Champions” supported by the British Council. The latter have a Climate Change Programme and have apparently supported groups of Climate Change Champions in a number of countries. A fine initiative. Several of the 25 at the Culture Future Symposium spoke well during the discussion

The topics and theme of the Symposium are consistent with and relevant to INTO goals and strategy. The Symposium continues today. I will explore what relationship we could build with the Culture Futures group.

Sunday 6 November, by Oliver Maurice

The UN Climate Conference 2009 – COP15 is being held at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen and this morning, we (INTO’s Hon Directors, Geoffrey and Oliver) made our way there to register.   Just as we left the smart new metro station adjacent to the Centre, there was a bomb scare and we couldn’t get in – the metro line was also closed so we couldn’t get out either!   We were with about 400 others so we started chatting and exchanging cards there and then.    We bumped into Juju Wang from the Taiwan National Trust (!) and some Chinese associates.   It was all very matey and the crowd was very well disciplined, despite the extremely cold.  After about an hour and a half, during which time Geoffrey and I walked up the canal to the next tube to get a coffee and some warmth, we got into the Centre.    We managed to register and have mug shots taken for our passes by about 3pm so we stayed on to get the geography of the Bella Centre.   Lots of stands were being put up including Greenpeace, WWF, AVAAZ etc so plenty of folk to go and see tomorrow.

We have arranged a venue at which to meet the rest of the team tomorrow morning, before they join the registration scrum at noon. 

I was really struck by how young the participants seem to be – probably a sign of my age but actually very encouraging that there is so much interest from the next generations.

Copenhagen is a great city, full of hustle and bustle and very friendly citizens. We are taking our hosts out to dinner tonight – probably the last chance before we start in earnest tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Copenhagen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.