Welcome to the Circus....
Those of us who arrived in Copenhagen to face the all important second week of what has become Hopenhagen thanks to a well co-ordinated campaign here were faced with the brutal reality that some 45,000 delegates had been registered with the UNFCCC, but that the Bella Centre could only accommodate 15,000 people. Such confusion meant that many of us were held at the gates by police from the early hours of this morning, in sub-zero temperatures, only to be told that registration had closed. I had to use every trick in the book to get access to the Centre itself and after 5 hours of waiting outside, I finally managed to get my delegates' badge. The fun is about to continue tomorrow as delegates will need a so-called 'secondary pass' to enable them to get in from Tuesday as pressure on the organisers mounts. To say the organisation here is chaotic is truly an understatement. In plenary today, we've already seen negotiations temporarily suspended as G77 nations walked out. The talks have restarted and one can only feel that this is the essential part of all of this - the rest, side events, meetings, stunts, exhibits by all and sundry - is simply a sideshow which takes away from the real discussions. With some members of country delegations being denied entry with the rest of us mere mortals outside today, one wonders what impact this may have on the main talks themselves - simply put, some negotiators were not in the room today. One other interesting sidebar - reading through the list of delegates it is immediately obvious the extent to which COP 15 has been dominated by NGOs - everyone from the Girl Guide Association to WWF are here - and in force - some key NGOs have 750 delegates. Business is hardly present and indeed some are saying that business has been excluded. How can this be the best way to achieve genuine dialogue?

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Comments

[Robert Gibson]

How to get the best out of COP15 attendance?

Keep away from the Bella Centre.

Forest Day and Oceans Day were both highly educational and an opportunity to share opinions with people doing 'real stuff'.

Believe the IEA's Sustainable Energy Policy and Tech Day on 16th will also be very worthwhile.

Robert Gibson Danish sim 2832 8853