Copenhagen update 2

OK, things are still a little chaotic here. However I have managed to actually get inside the conference venue today, following yesterday’s nightmare. Even today, it took four hours of queueing! But here I am.

It’s immense, and there’s far too much to have explored properly yet. There are hundreds of NGO stalls and activist groups (including the lovely anti-nuclear folk above), several huge plenary rooms with spillout and viewing rooms attached, rooms for the formal delegations, and no doubt separate accommodation for the heads of state, who won’t be mingling with the hoi poloi.

The biggest session I’ve been to so far was an address by Al Gore (as you can almost see from my rubbish photo below) who despite remaining committed only to cap-and-trade market mechanisms does manage to inspire a certain amount of positive spirit. I was feeling pretty low on that last night, after the Scottish Government’s extended backslapping exercise, and I needed the lift.

There were one or two unguarded remarks in there – at one point he implicitly admitted that the war in Iraq was all about oil, and at another he forgot his place and seemed to think he was talking in Montreal! I guess we can forgive that – he’s probably far more tired than most people here.

Among the messages he was sending are the call for COP16 to be moved forward to summer instead of next winter, for a deadline of April 22nd for US climate legislation, and (I think) for everyone to give Obama a break. He finished in a strange style of delivery, worthy of Captain Kirk.

Later this evening I’ll be meeting a group which is working in the European Parliament to advance the case for a ’supergrid’ to allow the efficient transfer of electricity between nations and even between continents. It’s the kind of technology we really need in place if we’re to move to a majority of renewable power in the next few decades, and could be a huge source of income for African countries too.

Finally, I really do promise that I’ll try to get a little video update onto the website soon. It’s been a busy time…