COP15

Copenhagen Reflection

COA Admin December 23, 2009 1 Comment

by Oliver Bruce I have to admit that I didn’t have high hopes for Copenhagen. I’d read the updates of the negotiations from Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona. I knew they hadn’t made enough progress to pull together something substantive. So when I entered the Bella Center I was under no illusions as to any impact I could have and spent my first week twittering on where the free food was and...

Juan Soriano offers youth statement to plenary

COA Admin December 19, 2009 0 Comments

by Donna Gold (from a press release) Sporting an orange t-shirt with the question, “How old will you be in 2050?”—referring to the fact that in 40 years the youth of today will be experiencing the effects of climate change while many of the leaders negotiating the treaty will be gone—Juan Carlos Soriano presented the youth statement to the plenary today. In 2050 he will be 64 years old....

Thoughts while sitting in a very empty chamber

COA Admin December 18, 2009 2 Comments

by Ken Cline Walking the halls of the Bella Center this morning it was eerily quiet. There were no bright-colored shirts, chanting youth, polar bears or walking trees. The energetic, chaotic, raw emotion of democracy was gone. Everything was neat and orderly and very, very surreal. Several of the NGO booths at the expo area had stark black and white signs that said, “Civil Society has been...

The Importance of Civil Society’s Presence at COP

COA Admin December 17, 2009 0 Comments

by Noah Hodgetts For added context to my previous blog post. It is vital that non-governmental organizations representing civil society ranging from College of the Atlantic and the Climate Action Network (CAN) to the Indigenous Peoples are involved in the process for several reasons. The most important reason is to hold countries accountable and to push them to make bolder pledges. Civil...

The Frustration Grows!

COA Admin December 17, 2009 0 Comments

by Noah Hodgetts I'm going on three days straight sitting here in the hostel largely because I have been sick, but also because I have no place better to be considering that almost all NGOs have been shut out of the Bella Center since Tuesday. NGOs have been forced to follow conference proceedings from satellite locations unable to show their presence and voice their opinions in official COP...