The logistics here definitively have room for improvement. We took the bus at 8 am and arrived 2 (!) hours later at the actual conference centre, which is hosted in a posh hotel. The internet was really bad all day as well, and with us relying on email and blogging to communicate, this was disastrous. Charlie and Sam spend the whole day working on the report, which will hopefully be finished today midday.
As for us, I am still trying to wrap my head around how things run here. We went to the opening speeches and it was quite interesting to hear how the tone has changed compared to Copenhagen! In Copenhagen, everyone delegates, NGOs and the Media) pressured to reach a final agreement. Here, nobody really expects a final agreement, and the speeches all focus more on "finding common ground", sorting out the finance details etc. It would be easy to dismiss it as "the UNFCCC isn't working anymore", we're not getting anywhere etc, but actually, this can be seen as a positive development as well. Quite a lot of the NGOs here believe that getting back to the roots and negotiating properly without the immense pressure of having to reach an agreement could be more productive. Many see this as the decisions to be made so that in South Africa next year, we can have a legally binding agreement.
The day itself was very long, we stayed around until 7 and until we actually got home it was 10 o'clock. As we assign work for the evening, too, the nights could get quite short soon. I am keen on my sleep though, and as you see, i postponed by blogging to today ;) Being tired the whole day after just isn't worth it, I think.
An interesting first day!
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