“Difficult negotiations following a most difficult path”

That is how UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon characterized the efforts of the Parties during Cop15 this evening in a panel session at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. “The eyes of the world are upon us.  The world expects much of us.”    The audience could feel the weight of his words.  He went on to say how this is an unprecedented summit the largest every outside NYC, with 113 heads of state representing 89% of the world's GDP, 82% of the world's population and 86% of global greenhouse gas emissions expected to be in attendance by week’s end.  Arrivals began on Tuesday night and already sixteen heads of state are already onsite, including Gordon Brown and Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.

Today marked the beginning of the second/final “High Level Phase" of the summit and started off differently than the previous days.  Upon arrival at the Bella Center, I noticed the security perimeter was now two blocks from the Center.  Security was doubled every you looked and supported by armored vehicles at the checkpoints.  But, with most logistical issues now cleared up I breezed through security in on 30 minutes.  Inside the number of media crews were almost doubled with many teams finding it difficult to get a clear shot without another competitive crew in the background most resorted to doing the spots standing on tabletops to get above the crowds.   Big athletic types in black suits working their way through the crowds barking commands into their wrists in hushed tones.  Curious-er and curious-er.

There was much buzz of Governor Schwarzenegger’s speech from Tuesday living proof you can have both tough environmental protection and economic growth at the same time, a reference that was cited in many deletes speeches on this morning.  Soon, news quickly spread the talks had completely stalled again with negotiators at an impasse on several big issues.  Although the G77 (the less developed nations) were softening on financing issues, the negotiations were at a standstill.  News of clashes outside ended up with 600 arrested. The Danish President of COP15 abruptly resigned and his role taken over by the Danish Prime Minister. 

In the highlight of the morning, Chavez addressed the delegation right before lunch with an eloquent but fiery speech, stating the climate change was the most devastating problem in history of mankind and how the destructive forces of capitalism are virtually eradicating life from the planet.  “We will not sit idly by with our arms folded waiting for humanity to die!”  He then reached out to other delegates, extolling the virtues of collaboration and collective human effort in dealing with challenges of this nature. Citing capitalism as the agent of destruction wielded by the imperialist, industrialized north, he offered socialism as the only solution to the world’s climate woes, encouraging nations to adopt socialism as the only path to salvation.  In closing, Chavez thanked the UN and the Parties in attendance and hoped they had a good lunch.

Phase 2 of the summit signifies the arrival of “the Ministers”. Arrive they did, in red carpet fashion with staff in tow, around noontime.  With the junior teams now handing negotiations over to the high-level decision makers there was new hope for rapid progress.

John Kerry, who has been embroiled in the negotiations for the last 24 hours, made a forceful speech on the US position and role moving forward, before returning to the US to cast his vote on healthcare tomorrow on the Hill. The same vote the will keep the Republican delegation home as well.   It was a good speech that will serve a good platform and setup for the Obama speech on Friday.

My day ended with the UN High Level session to describe their unified climate management strategy and initiatives with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 20 of his most senior direct reports, from organizations such as UNDP, the World Bank, the IMF and others. The Secretary General was to give the keynote but could attend due to his involvement in the negotiations. It was an interesting session because every few minutes an attendant with a cell phone to their ear would whisk one of the panelists out of the room with cell phone to their ear, supposedly to attend to some important issue that had arisen. Only to have Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appear about an hour into the session.  The Secretary General listened patiently for a few minutes then took the podium to give us an update on the talks.

“These are difficult negotiations, following a most difficult path” going on to say the global crisis demands global solutions and while everyone agrees in principal there is much disagreement on the details on two main sticking points. He is pushing hard on aggressive targets below the 1990 baseline.  The Less Developed Countries, in his words, are leading here by setting aggressive targets.  The second point is the financial and tech transfer support that will be provided to the Less Developed Countries by the industrialized nations.  Here he is pushing for a $50B fund to be established, but the support is not there yet.  He closed his remarks by saying, “These are the most complicated, most complex, and most difficult negotiations the I, the UN or anyone else has ever undertaken…. The future of the world is our hands… The people are depending on us and have high expectations for the delegates… and for the UN itself.”

Whether a part of a formal delegation or just an invited observer attendees at COP15 have a profound sense that history being written at here and the eyes of the world are indeed upon them.