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Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen - but will this week's big news story deliver?

STUFFED BETWEEN Dai, the Welsh blue climate Dragon, and sleeping bags, this time last week I was setting off on my long and tiring journey to the UN climate conference. It’s no exaggeration to say that the outcome of the United Nations talks this week will affect everyone on the planet. Future generations will live with the consequences of decisions taken at this meeting. With the right deal signed and sealed, the world will be able to emit a giant sigh of relief. And the future will look a lot brighter. For all of us. No deal, or even worse a poor deal that gives us a false picture of progress will leave us facing a dangerous and uncertain future.

On our way through Germany we picked up Oxfam volunteers and a polar bear that had hitchhiked from Manchester. More stories of people’s troubled rides to Copenhagen reached us. Campaigners from Wales travelling by bus were 5 hours behind schedule and were being searched for hours by police before being allowed entry into Denmark. Between sleeping on the floor of a Salvation Army dining room and marching 4 miles in six hours with an 18ft dragon, the first few days of campaigning have been full of interesting experiences.

News coverage has tended to concentrate on the very tiny minority of anarchists, or the campaigners who have been arrested even before they’ve done anything. I can honestly say that last Saturday’s march was the best I’ve been on. Surrounded by families, the fun and full-on – from clowns to Communists and Catholics – who had travelled from all over the world to raise their voice we were carried through the streets of Copenhagen by a wave of determined concern. The atmosphere was thick with the knowledge that this is the moment when things must happen.

This urgency was reinforced by the stories told at an Oxfam international climate hearing on Tuesday evening, held at the heart of the UN climate change negotiations with speakers from the four corners of the globe. In a packed room full of the world’s media (so full UN security had to step in to limit access) I heard testimonies from Uganda, Kiribati, Peru and Bangladesh. Constance Okollet, from Uganda, got a massive round of applause when she told the audience “I’m here to tell world leaders that we want our seasons back, children and old people are dying.”

Alongside these witnesses were former Irish Prime Minister and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who delivered a global verdict on the human cost of climate change. This judgment was passed to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, to ensure its delivery to the 192 countries currently negotiating the climate deal. Archbishop Tutu drew on his own experience of climate change and called on world leaders not to let the voices of the most vulnerable fall on deaf ears. He said: “This is our only chance to succeed in the world’s most important battle. I trust that those with the power to influence will have truly listened today. Justice cannot wait.”

The conference is omnipresent. A daily newspaper, COP15 Post, is on the reception desk of every hotel and at every café and bar. Down each narrow street or behind every corner we come across an art installation, a bill-board or somebody speaking. Helena Christiensen’s photo exhibition from her visit to Peru with Oxfam sits in the middle of a square. She spoke before the march last Saturday about how the melting glaciers in Peru are affecting farmers there and that they can’t rely on agriculture anymore because the weather is so unpredictable. Turn another corner and Rowan Williams is on a big screen delivering a speech that humanity has a duty to put aside self interest which is threatening the world and its people.

At Klimaforum 09, a conference centre the other side of town, events, workshops, talks, are running from 10 am until midnight. I dropped into a packed hall to hear George Monbiot talking on a panel yesterday. He was explaining the cost, in terms of cash and impact, of continuing to use fossil fuels to supply our energy, He said that by 2030 – only 21 years – it is projected that the world will have to spend an implausible amount of money – $25.5 trillion – on energy supply infrastructure. That doesn’t include renewable energy or a transition to renewable energy – it will be in order to keep up with current levels of energy demand. He added that it would cost about the same to build an energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. He finished by asking, “Given that both options are equally as implausible should we not choose the one that does make sense on every other front?”

Wales has made its own announcement here of course, with the newly elected First Minister, Carwyn Jones, unveiling news of the Territorial Agreement on Climate Change – a new deal between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Mbale region of Uganda to help prepare the area for the impacts of climate change. A three year partnership will help Mbale both understand what Climate Change means for them and help them take the actions to enable them to cope. This is a highly commendable practical implementation and example of the type of co-operation that needs to happen between the North and South to move forward to tackle the impacts of climate change. However, relatively small projects of this nature will not be enough to secure the world’s future. We need the big global players to make sure that they deliver the agreement and associated funding in the first place for the practical work to develop on the necessary scale.

By now we’re well into week two but the negotiations have been characterised by their slow pace, widespread mistrust and a frustrating lack of progress. Time is quickly marching on and we see the rich nations dragging their feet, even though the leaders of the poor countries are pushing for the process to be hurried up. The leader of Tuvalu was in tears at the end of last week when he had his chance to speak, he must be at the end of his tether now with so little being put forward and his country facing the real prospect of completely disappearing beneath the waves.

As I write from a hostel in Copenhagen, it seems that the talks are leaving the big questions unanswered and we only have two days to go.

The summary revealed on Wednesday detailing the political state of play in the UN climate negotiations shows how delegates have failed to address the cornerstones of a climate deal. A breakthrough, including what legal form the agreement in Copenhagen would take, the scale of the climate finance package and the level of rich country emissions reductions, is crucial for the sake of millions of poor people already living on the frontline of climate change.

At a time when we in Wales are faced with rising unemployment levels and an ongoing financial crisis, it’s difficult to see why and how we can talk about giving huge sums of money to other countries and other people. But here’s the thing. If we do it now – and if we do it properly – in twenty or thirty years time we won’t have to pick up the pieces of a half-hearted deal based on short-term gains. From death to hunger, disasters to displacement, the cost of delay is criminal.

We’ve been waiting for years for this critical deal. With just two days to go, it is time for governments to stop sidestepping their responsibilities and do the deal that’s needed for all of us. As the placards, waving above ahead on Saturday read – there is no planet B.