2002-2014
Greetings from the resort town of Nusa Dua on the island of Bali, Indonesia, the site of the 2007 UN Climate Change meetings!
Bali is the 2007 site for the annual meeting of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (KP). Every year the venue changes; last year it was in Kenya and in 2005 it was in Montreal. I was fortunate enough to attend the Montreal meetings in 2005 and feel doubly fortunate to find myself in Indonesia for the 2007 meetings.
I arrived December 11th to catch the tail end of these significant meetings, attending as an NGO observer with Climate Action Network (CAN) Canada (Manitoba Wildlands is a member of CAN).
There are two main venues for the meetings - the Bali International Conference Centre is where the plenaries (big meetings where all delegates attend, and main meetings are held. It is also the site for exhibits by NGOs, industry and governments. The nearby Grand Hyatt is the site of side events, the NGO secretariat and other secretariats. It's only a 15-minute walk between the two, but it is 30+C and you quickly start to drip, which can be fairly uncomfortable when you step back into air-conditioned rooms. There are free bikes that can be picked up and dropped off at the conference venues, but people are finding the heat overwhelming for biking. There is also the shuttle bus to go back and forth, and of course many, many taxis.
I spent yesterday getting oriented. I visited the document centre to pick up the daily programme of events. Then I went a CAN press conference. The press conferences communicate priority messages to international media about delegations from different countries being constructive or obstructive. Priority issues and Climate Action Network International's position are provided to the media, especially to balance government spin.
I attended the CAN (600 climate action groups around the world) daily meeting in the afternoon - the forum for all of the groups working on different issues to report and communicate progress or lack thereof. Cell phones of those involved in lobbying at the high level are constantly buzzing. These folks spend a good deal of their time cornering delegates to lobby and gather intelligence about positions and possibilities for compromise, sitting in on the meetings that are open and talking to media. NGO participants often broker deals, especially towards the end of the conference when there are marathon negotiation sessions. During the daily meetings all the CAN participants can get caught up with 'the state of play' within the various working groups. The daily meetings are also where the next day's ECO newsletter articles are decided. ECO is one of the NGOs' main tools at the conference and provides a voice that delegations hear loud and clear. The Fossil of the Day is another tool - and the daily meeting is also where the Fossils are decided.
Evening events included release of the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report. Our Environment Minister John Baird was scheduled to headline the event. Canadian NGO youth groups were planning to ask him some questions and had to walk out in disgust after Mr. Baird was a no-show.
Today (December 12th) was the start of the high-level segment of the conference. This means delegates hand over draft text for the Ministers and heads of state to negotiate and finally arrive at final text for agreement by all parties.
The arrival of the Ministers meant the already tight security got even tighter and things got busier. There were more police and soldiers with machine guns, more traffic and ironically, they cancelled the shuttle bus between the two venues.
The CAN daily meeting was my main event again today and I caught up with a few folks I have met at various conferences through the years and offered to help out in any way I can over the next few days.
Finally, I biked back to the main venue and visited the exhibits for interesting publications for Manitoba Wildlands' library of resources. I managed to find some very interesting documents and make a few contacts for the future.
The plenary to open the high level segment, with Ministers speaking for about 3 minutes each, started this morning and is scheduled to continue until 9pm tonight, so there may be some interesting things to report on Thursday!