My Last Day in the Bella, and an Address to Civil Society

It looks as though Monday may have been my last day inside of the Bella Center. We got an email from the head of SustainUS, and observer organizations are getting even fewer badges for this week than expected. For the next couple of days, security will allow 1,000 NGO observers in at a time. On Friday, when all of the heads of State arrive, such as Obama, they will only allow 90 NGO observers into the Bella Center. Just to give you an idea of the significance of that number, there are over 90 NGO organizations, and many have close to 100 accredited members. I’m sure that overall, there are close to 10,000 (or maybe many more) accredited NGO members. There is no way I will get in on Friday, and to get in on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, I would have to feign importance that doesn’t really exist—SustainUS is taking applications from members, and will allocate secondary badges based on the importance and necessity of our presence at the conference. We were told that folks with important meeting dates or press conferences would get priority, and unless I am able to organize a pretend press conference between now and then, I will probably be out of luck. That being said, I probably could wiggle into receiving a badge. However, I think that Yaicha had a great point on this—there are people who really need to be in there to influence negotiations, people who will do more than just observe and write about the proceedings. I may change my mind and try to squeeze back into the conference once more, but as of now, I think that I may be done. I might have to take a dive into the cultural side of things now. This city is alive with climate change-themed events—it’s only a matter of finding them.

Also, at the end of the day on Monday, Melissa and I sat in on an "address to civil society" and Q/A session with COP15 President Connie Hedegaard. I really am coming to like her, and I feel that the negotiations are in good hands. She sounded mostly optimistic, and answered questions very ably. One thing that she really emphasized was her feeling that a strong, legally binding deal is necessary now. She said that she feels the political momentum is as high as it will ever be (given the pending gathering of 112+ political leaders from around the world), and we need to take advantage of the opportunity at hand. She reiterated other leaders’ feelings that “there is still a lot of work to be done” but she remains optimistic. She was quoted by Recharge News as saying, “I have never seen anything like it when it comes to political willingness. This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we get a better one—if we ever do.” Her optimism stems from the magnitude of the international political momentum calling for an ambitious deal. Have you ever heard of over 100 Presidents and Prime Ministers conglomerating in the same building, talking about the same subject? Maybe I am young and naïve, but I certainly haven’t. I think that the magnitude of this event is unprecedented—and this momentum is currently peaking at the perfect time. Still, however, the likelihood of completely and effectively mitigating climate change is looking like a lost cause. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the lack of American leadership on this (we have little to offer in terms of substantial reductions as of yet, mostly, I think, because of the sluggish nature of our political process), but also because of the inevitable complexity of finding political consensus among all the nations of the world.