Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

I'm sitting in a room in the Bella Center called Leonora Christina waiting for the COP 15 president (Connie Hedegaard)'s briefing for civil society.  I arrived at the Bella Center not too long ago after some much needed sleep!

Apparently one of the big stories in the US is about Bella Center security - which I think is kind of funny because it took me like 7 minutes to get through security this morning, lines and all.  Next week, though, is when the (more than 100!) heads of state will begin to arrive, and I'm sure that security will begin to ramp up soon in preparation for that.

Yesterday was exhausting.  After our Cascade Climate Network meeting (follow us here!), I met with the international youth adaptation policy group.  We spent four hours reading the actual text being negotiated and picking out areas we want to support.  In UN negotiations, you will have the text of the treaty, and any portion of the text that is still in contention will be [bracketed].  Based on the policy principles we had already agreed to support, we chose about ten portions of the text that we are going to advocate to be unbracketed.  We sent our recommendations to the YOUNGO Spokescouncil meeting to be approved by representatives from all the youth groups who are here.

After snagging a free dinner (a fairly foul hummus & zucchini sandwich at a reception... I am the worst vegetarian ever, I know), I went to this awesome event between Chinese and American youth.  There are about 40 young people from China here, and we had a shared visioning session together.  It was really powerful to talk about our governments' roles in these negotiations and how we can work together to build a relationship of trust and mutual understanding between our two countries.

Well, Connie never showed up for the briefing (that's the way things go here - the schedule is always being changed) so now I am eating a carrot cake (what is it with the Danes and carrot cake??) and drinking a coffee at one of the many busy cafes throughout the Bella Center, prepping for the next meeting.

Incredible News! New Hope!

Obama has changed his plans!!! He has now decided to attend the last day of COP15 instead of just 'stopping through' on his way to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize on the much less crucial day of December 9th.  He decided to change his plans after learning that China and India are prepared to make commitments to reduce their emissions.

This is amazing news!!  We may have a binding treaty yet!

He also acknowledged the importance of adaptation for developing countries!!! THANK YOU FOR LISTENING, PRESIDENT OBAMA!

After organizing several campaigns to include adaptation funding for developing countries, this quote from the White House makes me so happy:
"This week, the President discussed the status of the negotiations with Prime Minister Rudd, Chancellor Merkel, President Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown and concluded that there appears to be an emerging consensus that a core element of the Copenhagen accord should be to mobilize $10 billion a year by 2012 to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable and least developed countries that could be destabilized by the impacts of climate change. The United States will pay its fair share of that amount and other countries will make substantial commitments as well. In Copenhagen, we also need to address the need for financing in the longer term to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. Providing this assistance is not only a humanitarian imperative – it’s an investment in our common security, as no climate change accord can succeed if it does not help all countries reduce their emissions."