First day we travelled to Le Bourget. Åsa Löfgren and I and many thousands more. People from small island states, in national costumes of feathers and many men in suits. Then dozens of scanners and badges, welcome packages and everything just magically swift. All in all the arrangements, the scanning, the process of registration for accredited observers, absolutely everything has worked smoothly. Much better than in Copenhagen. The coffee, the gateaux and the food were exquisite. Maybe one thing was missing: Not much hope nor desperation.
We did see a few people who were on hunger strike but no demonstrations, no polar bears and not much passion. For those of us who have visited Place de la Republique it is understandable. The terrorists have not silenced us but they have dampened the conversation. There has simply been too much immediate pain and suffering. The debate cannot but be affected. Still I have to admit I did miss the feeling of side-events in Copenhagen.
We listened for a while to the plenary sessions. What a miracle that we were allowed in after all the security. The hour we listened to the negotiations were however plainly boring. There was a monotonous protocollary reading of paragraphs and decisions on dates and amendments that seemed clinically free of any emotion or purpose. But you bump into interesting people and many old friends. Then we had our session. A mixed CEPS/Mistra Indigo session where Lars Zetterberg presented some of our conclusions on instruments and I sat on a panel. We debated issues such as the difficulties of linking Emission Trading Schemes (ETS) and how hard it is in practice to get a sufficient carbon price everywhere. The hall was full with way over a hundred people many of whom came up afterwards and wanted to discuss.
We had an interesting lunch with Cameron Hepburn from Oxford and then walked around. Visited the Gulf States area and saw very spacious and beautiful rooms that made us want to visit Oman and other countries in the area. A very flashy interactive technology table showed all kinds of fancy products and projects that Saudi Arabia is carrying out. Enormous solar parking places where the panels provide shade for the vehicles as well as generating electricity. A prototype car which captures up to 30 percent of the carbon dioxide released in the gas tank itself. Stunning but is that an economically realistic abatement technology? Seems like they would want to capture carbon on smoke stacks first.
Mexico spoke of tornados and threatened biodiversity. China had a robot that walked around and could apparently replace humans, although not clear to for what purpose. India had a beautiful fountain where water droplets traced the word “INDIA” poetically against a beautiful background. They also had exhibits about 100 GW of solar by 2022 and then accelerating with 25 Solar Parks, Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects, canal top solar projects and hundred thousand new solar pumps for small farmers. Personally that is one of the few things that gives me a bit of hope.