The run-up to Copenhagen 2

Tomorrow is the starting day of the biggest and most decisive intergovernmental conference in 2009, the UNFCCC in Copenhagen. So far the year has been dominated by conferences and meetings on the global financial and economic crisis which have tied a lot of attention resources that probably would have been better invested in discussing the issue of the single most historical importance of our generation: global climate change.

Only in the last months have the efforts of climate change mitigation been able to reconquer some room in the global political agenda that they had lost to the efforts of coping with the fallout of the global recession. But this process has been gaining momentum recently. Newspapers are full of series, articles, essays and opinion pieces on climate change and the Copenhagen talks. And seemingly the trend is even strong enough to counter tendencies to postpone the decision-making in climate change mitigation to future conferences. Some of the most important powers on an international scale, including China and the USA, had already denied the possibility to implement decisive measures in Copenhagen at the APEC summit some weeks ago. Now US-President Barack Obama felt obliged to change his Copenhagen schedule due to rising public pressure: he will attend the decisive final stages of the talks instead of only visiting the conference along the way to pick up his Nobel Peace Price. Taking into consideration that he personally attended the IOC meeting deciding on the scene of the Summer Olympics 2016, it would have been grotesque to absent himself from the final stages of the Copenhagen talks.

From the perspective of an observer organization attending the talks, the mounting flurry of activities connected to the Copenhagen summit is even more obvious. In the final days leading to the start of the talks more and more e-Mails concerning the conference have arrived at the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (FRFG). They reflect the plurality of organizations attending the talks and the range of interests that will be voiced in the process. Event managers are promoting berths on cruise liners for representatives of observer organizations. Other organizations are trying to sell excess rooms that had been booked in advance or are looking for funding of their travel and accommodation costs. A 'spiritual on-line TV station' contacted us to ask if we had a booth at the venue of the conference and if they could cover our activities in Copenhagen in the scope of their program. Many organizations contacted us in order to arrange for meetings during the talks to discuss future possibilities of cooperation. Other organizations have been passing around petitions to include everything from water shortage to livestock breeding in the talks. Companies from Brazil are advertising their know-how in ethanol fuels and are pushing for funding of their technology. Other organizations are informing fellow participants ("There is some good news you should know about so as not to be surprised when you get to Copenhagen.") of a "new green, low-cost sustainable fuel" that "can be stored at any location" and that will be "the solution to global warming". It can even be used as a fertilizer!

It becomes clear that organizations, companies and people from very different backgrounds with very different agendas and interests will participate in the summit. The conference will be a very diverse event and the venue will surely be bustling with interesting, dedicated and eccentric people. Lets hope that the observer organizations will be able to put some pressure on the government representatives deciding about the fate of future generations despite their very different interests and approaches. There is no time to bury one's head in the sand/snow.