Last thoughts on my way to Copenhagen

So, it is all here - passport, ticket, money and energy – ouch where did that go? In getting ready to leave for Copenhagen like many others, I am struck by the commitment, drive and sheer positive energy that will be on display throughout the 2 weeks. This in the run up to the festive season where many of the key delegates would rather get ready for a relaxing time with their families.  I wonder if someone out there has calculated how much energy as individuals we will be expending in the two weeks….Anyone got an idea?

I am always amazed at the sheer stamina and good humour these events have; and that despite the difficulty of the negotiations. This year will have added dimensions. Firstly,  the number of press accreditations is close to or even larger than the number of official negotiators. That says something about the newsworthiness of the event as well as its interest to a broader audience than the negotiators. Perhaps we as the public do care despite the surveys. Media column inches are sometimes a better indication of where the public attention is than surveys. But this year we also seem to have a large number of blogs, twitter and other means of communicating and sharing the latest news or probably more precisely ‘gossip’. So I suspect there will be information overload and speculation.
Anyway back to the main issue – what will it be like? If previous COP's are anything to go by Copenhagen will span the whole gamut of emotions and energy from exhaustion to exhilaration. As well as generate not a few headaches (real and virtual) and a large amount of words (spoken, written and images). 
Thoughts - we have some lovely ones on the Copenhagen site for COP15. 
Pictures, look at the Royal Academy of Art - and to remind me about the world and its beauty .
On the journey there in addition to ‘speculating’ about the outcome one of the questions in many peoples minds will be "what will the facilities be like?" Critical issues like access to internet as well as food to fuel all that energy I mentioned above. But not least pleasure and anticipation ahead of catching up with colleagues. At least I will not find myself throwing away a lot of freebies, as the Danish Government has decided to spend the money on scholarships, that is progress!
But what do I believe we need as an outcome? We need:

·         very clear understanding of what governments are expecting.

·         very clear understanding of how we are going to meet the environmental imperatives

·         very clear understanding of where the funds are going to be used.

As for the marine sector, the topic I will be mainly following, we need:

·         a deal that adheres to IMO principles of ‘equal treatment for all ships’

·         a deal that allows IMO to design, regulate and administer (through flag and port states) climate change commitments

·         within IMO later in 2010  we need absolute clarity of what the different schemes mean

Throughout and for the shipping sector we need to be increasingly clear in the language we use because if we are not clear nobody else is going to be.