We are now on the 6th day of the 15th climate change conference. So far it seems like it’s pending between hope and despair. To try to follow and cover as much as possible concerning water issues is challenging. But what I’ve learned is that water is not just a chemical substance composed of...
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When people talk about people around here, they often don’t talk about real people. Sometimes they don’t talk about unreal people either, even though it is certain that without any kind of people there would be no worries, no fuzz and no COP 15. Not even Yvo de Boer would be if there would...
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It’s cold, rainy and grey. To be honest, the weather in Copenhagen is quite miserable. When arriving to Bella Center metro station, most people rush before the queues to get inside as quick as possible. Inside, they spend the day informing, getting informed, negotiating, writing and running around. Left outside are the real heroes.
People...
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What can possibly be hiding behind the massive bunch of people pushing and thrusting? Is there some famous politician or leader being interviewed? Has there been an accident? Have the negotiations become this fierce? No – free snacks are being served.
Before going to Bella Centre, I had heard that there will sometimes be free...
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People are different. If there is one lesson to learn from living in Bella Centre for a couple of days, it would be that people are very, very different. There are 14.000 accredited conference participants in here, and all of us have different habits, different shoes, different colors of everything, different thoughts, agendas, languages,...
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“Things are not going well” the lead negotiator for the G77 countries, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aiping, said to Danish TV2 as he stormed out from consultations with the Danish chairman of COP15 yesterday. The diplomatic gloves have now definitely come off as the first weeks of negotiations soon come to an end.
The EU made an...
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Poor people in developing countries don’t have time to wait. In particular not the poorest of the poor. With no money and few possibilities, the poorest of the poor remain suffering and are actually dying.
Even though decisions are to be taken during the conference, many people in the developing countries will need urgent tools...
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It is a common fact that once people get comfortable, they don’t like to go uncomfortable. In the west, most of us are not too keen on negotiating with our living standards, meaning that we don’t want to question our level of comfort. Driving the car to the supermarket two blocks away or taking...
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“If you don’t want to ask any questions, I’m going to pick the next questioner”, the chairperson said, laughing. There I was, sitting at my first-ever briefing, and for the first time ever, the chair of a UN meeting was waiting for me to push the speak-button on my microphone. He wasn’t waiting only...
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Finance is one of the core questions to be agreed upon during the Copenhagen conference. Many of the post-2012 actions of mitigation, adaptation and new technology will depend on what financial resources are available. In order to successfully adapt to the snowballing effects of climate change and make a transition to a low carbon...
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