It's getting wild out there...

Hi all,

Wednesday morning in Copenhagen, and things are getting wild. Negotiations and everything they stand for appear to be breaking down. The weather seems to want to reflect the turbulence -- snow started falling last night and continues down in whirls today. I am half way through another blog about the past few days, but I feel I need to say something now, before the thick of the insanity and the blizzard set in.

Let me try to explain.
First, the process is losing transparency. One of the things I've consistently been able to say to COP skeptics in favour of the negotiations is that they are based on consensus and that they are more or less transparent to the public. Negotiation rooms in Bella make up a fraction of the total space -- the rest is dedicated to NGOs and the press, allowing them to spread their message and receive that of the delegates. Starting yesterday, however, numbers of NGO members allowed inside were cut by three quarters. NGOs must now have two badges to get inside Bella and three needed to get into most plenaries. Today in addition to the badges, they are capping the number of people that can enter and they are no longer allowing anyone to register, even speakers for events! Meaning that unless you are there at the crack of dawn, you will be left in the cold. Literally. Queues to get inside Monday and Tuesday were so long that many people waited ten hours trying to get inside.

Not only are negotiations being blocked from outsiders, even insiders are being left in the dark. Multiple meetings are being held at the same time, meaning delegates cannot attend every session they need. This is just one manifistation of the next major problem...

Second, negotiations themselves are breaking down. Apparently, plenaries went until well after 2am last night as delegates struggled to get around seemingly irreconcilable differences. Heads of state are due to start arriving today and will expect some kind of coherent text to be presented to them. However, last night when delegates were presenting their "progress" to the chair, they instead essentially made a plea for help. As my friend Rosa reported, their words were, "Mr. Chairman... Please, explain to us where to go." (http://adoptanegotiator.org/2009/12/15/mr-chairman%E2%80%A6-please-explain-to-us-where-to-go/) Things are not looking good for Kyoto or her COP15 daughter...

The third issue: the natives are restless. The natives of Cophenhagen are restless. After a massive protest in Christiana (a portion of Copenhagen that ceded from the city in the 70s and later from the EU) yesterday spurred police to enter the compound for only the second time in decades. The residents, generally outside the reach of the police here, are not pleased... The NGOs and delegations representing indigenous people (and all the other NGOs!) are restless. After putting in vast amounts of time and monetary resources to get here, they are standing in the snow, blocked from negotiations. The "people" of the people's forum, KlimaForum are restless. This alternative forum has been the hub of much of the direct action here in Copenhagen. With the rising tension and with the feeling that nothing is being accomplished (even now with only three days to go), the people have staged a massive action set to decend on Bella this morning. Long queues of cold, angry NGO members plus masses of burning angry activists plus a police force stretched too thin as it is.... things could get ugly.

I will report more when I can... but everyone, we need your good energy here! Hopenhagen and all it represents is crashing into despair...

With love,
Lys