Canadian Youth Delegation, the heartbeat of COP16 coverage

Best analysis of the Cancun talks has come from our very own Canadian Youth Delegation. I can't say it any better than this. So I'll just share it straight from the horse's mouth.

More from me later, meanwhile take time to read the most heartfelt analysis and cogent coverage of the negotiations.

http://canadianyouthdelegation.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/sleep-deprived-stocktaking/

Images of COP16

Busy day without much internet access. Today I'll let the pictures tell the story.

At the Moon Palace (Negotiating Venue)

President Felipe Calderon on tour of the CleanTech Exhibits

Art installation by Tck Tck Tck

The Exhibit Area of the Side Event Venue (There are 100's of booths)

No caption necessary

The Emissions Gap

Cities Showing Leadership at a COP ... AGAIN

At Copenhagen the association of world cities showed up their national counterparts by emphasizing the action they were taking to combat climate change in their own cities against the backdrop of all the talking and lack of action by nations. Here in Cancun, they are singing the same song again. (In fact, they did say their theme song was Elvis Presley’s, “A little less conversation, a little more action”, but that would be tacky to mention it.)

On Friday night they announced The Mexico Pact, signed just 2 weeks ago in Mexico City. This is a pact signed by 138 mayors of the major cities of the world, including Tokyo, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles and Paris, to name a few. The pact binds them to limits on carbon emissions and commitment to register and validate emissions in a central registry, according to a strict protocol.

With the benchmarks in place, the innovative strategies cities will take to meet them is inspiring. The Copenhagen mayor spoke of making a carbon neutral city. And the mayor of Tokyo has implemented the world’s first municipal cap and trade system. Yes, they can.

The presenters were a representative group of the world’s city leadership, from France to Japan to Australia. They made the point that populations are moving to cities. By the end of this century, 90% of people will live in cities. They feel that their jurisdictional reach and their commitment to reduce emissions will drag the national leaders in their wake. And isn’t that what leadership is all about.

Read all about the initiative here: http://www.wmsc2010.org/

Cancun is not Copenhagen - COP16 The Underdog

It was my first day at the COP venue yesterday and I couldn’t help but continue my comparisons to Copenhagen.

• buses idling in the street to take us to the venue instead of rail public transit
• food onsite is much more expensive
• same police presence, just that these ones ride in open jeeps with semi-automatic weapons on display
• there is sunshine in the morning
• very little self promotion of the event around town
• the site is secluded and exclusive with the ‘side events’ a full 10 minute bus ride away from the negotiating venue
• no front page Globe and Mail coverage, in fact no coverage at all

Those mostly sound like negative differences for Cancun and they are. But the intangibles are different too and they all tilt into Cancun’s favour. The tone is quiet and friendly. Copenhagen was the big show, with the superstar atmosphere and it disappointed. Cancun is the picking ourselves up and persevering underdog. And everybody loves an underdog, right?

So I’m over the whole Copenhagen thing now. Cancun is its own conference and it’s been an incredible collection of events and people in its own right.

For instance, I walked into the wrong room by mistake into the US Pavilion and got caught up in a presentation about using satellite data to make decisions on adaptation strategies. Sounds boring, eh. Not so. This was a huge rock star show, with multi-media presentation graphics, Google Earth on steroids, and the most impressive visuals I have ever seen regarding climate change. The impact of seeing hurricane data, extreme weather impacts, and the ‘before and after’ of some major disasters was both gutwrenching and enlightening at the same time.

As our presenter explained, there are ‘hazards’ and there are ‘disasters’. A 'hazard' is a hurricane in the middle of the ocean that never affects anyone. A 'disaster' occurs when a 'hazard' meets population. With population increases and with the increase in 'hazards' due to climate change, the exponential increase in ‘disasters’ is inevitable. Scary. But the new methods of tracking and understanding the hazards with the amazing GIS and satellite tools out there mean that we have a fighting chance of planning and averting some of the damage, but the disasters will come and they will increase in frequency and intensity. It is inevitable.

Let’s hope that we can wrestle down the *number* of hazards and associated disasters by stopping this climate change beast in its tracks. That’s why Cancun keeps fighting. It’s what underdogs do.

Cancun is not Copenhagen

I landed in Cancun this afternoon for the COP16 meetings. And I couldn't help but spend the rest of the day comparing Cancun to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen we felt like rock stars. Every service person along the way from the airports to the restaurants were cheering us on. When people heard we were going to Copenhagen, they'd congratulated us and encouraged us in the fight against climate change.

The trip to Cancun was unremarkable. No-one really noticed us. On the way to Copenhagen, conference goers took over entire air planes. Boarding gate talk was of climate change and national policy. On the way to Cancun, we were overshadowed by wedding parties, and groups of partying university students.

Tomorrow morning I will head into the conference site to be registered, join in the events and observe the negotiations. My colleagues tell me I will be impressed by the organization and efficiency of the on-site logistics. I am looking forward to making more comparisons between the disparate host cities. And I am hoping against hope that the outcome of this COP will be entirely different from last year's, so that I can truly say, in a more meaningful way that Cancun is not Copenhagen.