Today has been rich and full, and I am starting to get my bearings, both geographically and Kyoto-legally. I must say right out that the work of the NGO global (called CANET) delegation is more than impressive; it is superb. They are REALLY on top of things, and beavering away in each of the relevant COP working groups. The details are often quite arcane, and when they talk about them to neophytes like myself, it is often as if they are talking in another language (Kyoto-ese), which makes it tough for beginners to get up to speed, but they are really working hard, as they have done for many COPP conferences before. I may consider myself something of an expert at climate change, the science and the solutions, but I have not immersed myself in the legalities of the actual negotiations before, so I am among the beginners here.

So what is the nuts and bolts? The EU (which works as a bloc) is trying to include the US in the Kyoto after 2012 discussions, which the NGO community thinks is not the way to go; the New Zealanders are being needlessly negative; the Swedes are insisting that carbon trading must have caps, in other words, that an industry sector must be told "Here's your limit for CO2 emissions: now either reduce to that level, or trade with someone else to get the same equivalent level"; the Finns want to talk about technology transfer; the US is still refusing to debate a post-2012 debate; etc, etc.

There are a few people in the NGO community who sit on their governments' official delegations, so they are able to feed information back to the rest of us. Canada has been great: they have included many NGO people, in its 230 person-strong delegation, including our own Taylor Zeeg, from the BCSEA. The US has maybe one person from an NGO in its 123 person-strong delegation. They don't want anyone rocking their particular boat. For everyone else, it's a matter of gathering intelligence, and finding out whatever you can, from whatever quarter is possible.

The other Americans have been fabulous. I went to two presentations today, one from the US southeast, with people from Florida and Carolina, which is really vulnerable to hurricanes and storms. Quote: "There ain't nothing good about losing your entire home, and your livelihood." The speakers said that after Katrina, ordinary people were asking "What is this global warming thing? What do we need to know about it?" One person spoke of Category Five denial in Washington, and how the big insurance companies are running so alarmed about what's happening in Florida from the hurricanes that the State government is now on the hook for much insurance that the insurance companies won't touch any more. He foresaw a capital flight from areas of coastal Florida and Texas, because you can't build without insurance. Another quote: "We are continuing to have a failure of leadership, at home and abroad."

Then later in the day, another meeting had the State of California and the State of Sao Paolo in Brazil doing a joint presentation, called No Reason to Wait, in which they showed how they have each been able to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions successfully, with a positive financial return. In Sao Paolo, it is through the use of ethanol from sugar cane, energy conservation, the use of landfill methane gas to make electricity, and reforestation of the Atlantic forest. In California, it is primarily through energy efficiency, and the acceleration of renewable energy.

California has made a formal commitment to an 80% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; they are releasing the draft report this Thursday. (See www.climatechange.ca.gov, where you can also find the "No Reason to Wait" paper)

On another tack, the NGO community gives a daily Fossil of the Day award, to encourage better progress; today it was given to the EU, (for reasons I did not fully understand); to Australia, for remarks made by their Environment Minister which were full of denial; and to the Netherlands. I would like to see us also give a daily positive award, perhaps called the Climate Leaders Award, to reward positive initiatives, and I'd like to see us give the first such award to Papua New Guinea (PNG), for its land-use proposal that would allow the forest-dwelling villagers to receive benefits through the Clean Development Mechanism if they choose not to cut their existing old growth forests. The pressure of poverty is very strong, especially when they are enticed by logging companies, who offer them cash for their traditional forest. They don't want to lose it, but they feel the need for development, hospitals, and schools.

I had heard about this before, but at tea this afternoon I saw a very Papuan looking man near me, and I said "Excuse me, are you by any chance from Papua New Guinea?" He replied with a smile "Right first time!" We then had a great half-hour talk, in which he told me that he was a forester by training, and that he was part of the 6-person Papuan government delegation; his ministry has been trying to control the really bad clear-cut logging that has been going on in PNG, and he has faced assassination threats for his efforts.

His name is Goodwill Amos; Amos is a local Papuan name, and his father was told in a vision that he would have a son, and that he should call him Goodwill. So when his mother became pregnant, after having had two daughters, when the time of his birth arrived, his father announced that it would be a boy, and that he should be called Goodwill, and then took off to bed! These are the kind of tales you hear, if you sit around and talk.

Anyway, I'm busy rallying support for this initiative, to have a Climate Leaders Award, knowing that that the leaders of the NGO community have already decided not to, because, they've never done if before, and that it would take too long to decide who should get it. We'll find out tomorrow how I get on.

Oh, by the way; I did go back to the hydrogen enhanced car people, and persuaded them (I think) to call their device the Hydrogen Enhanced Gasoline Vehicle (and Hydrogen Enhanced Diesel Vehicle). They seem quite receptive to the idea.

And all this is just a fraction of the overall day, as one person amid the 10,000 experienced it. Some more odds and ends:

Jose Goldemberg, the Environment Secretary from Brazil, offered these figures:
Jobs per terawatt hour from petroleum: 260
Jobs per terawatt hour from wind: 918 to 200
Jobs per terawatt hour from solar PV: 30,000

And someone else offered this data:
Global subsidies to energy, 1974 to 2002:
Nuclear energy: $169 billion
Fossil fuels: $37 billion
Renewables: $24 billion

In 2002, Japan alone paid $2.8 billion in subsidies to nuclear fission (a VERY long shot). In the same year, the whole world combined paid $2.4 billion in subsidies to renewables. In 2004, the world spent $2 trillion of energy. In 1998, it spent $240 billion in energy subsidies, 75% of which went to fossil fuels, and just 6% to renewables. And to add frustration to the stupidity: since 1992, and Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the World Bank has lent $28 billion for fossils fuels, 17 times more than it has lent for renewable energy projects. Just think what we could do, if we applied our resources intelligently!

Change gear. Tonight, I went to the big show put on by the David Suzuki Foundation; a concert come energy-raiser at a theater near my little hotel. Great music, (check http://www.ninjatune.net/kidkoala), excited atmosphere, and both Severin Suzuki and David Suzuki were on top form. Then back to my hotel, and settle down to write this; it's now 1.00am, and tomorrow is another day.

Good night!


Sunday night, December 4th
Greetings; still cold here! Sunday is a rest day for the COP-11 itself, but I know that all over Montreal, small groups of people are gathering, strategizing, discussing, and making preparations for the week to come.

For myself, it was a chance to take in a different dimension. In the afternoon, there was a major spiritual event at St. Joseph's Oratory, on the northern side of Westmount "mountain". The church itself is slightly more than impressive; it's a huge, enormous edifice, full of chambers and vast open spaces for worship.

The Call of the Earth (Un Cri de la Terre) was organized by a team of people over several months, and you could really tell; the intensity of the energy was so tangible. It started (full house, maybe a thousand people) with a native man speaking of a prophecy he had received in a dream as a child, that Now is the Time. Then a small child entered, carrying a candle down the nave, followed by a Spiritual Declaration on Climate Change. The whole event, lasting two hours, was a rich collage of music, dancers, music, film, slides, and a personal sharing of actions we would take. There was witness on climate change from the Artic, India, Morocco, and the Pacific Islands, and there was a beautiful cloth mandala that some children had made. The whole event was a work dreamed in heaven, and delivered on Earth.

Then after taking an hour to rest, read and recover, I ventured out into the Latin quarter for supper, and found a great vegetarian restaurant, filled, it turned out, with fellow conference goers from Halifax and Edmonton. So a merry evening was had by all.