The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

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March 21, 2024

Q & A with Copenhagen climate change participants

Diplomats gathered from around the world to discuss climate change. Photo courtesy of mygreentreasure.com.

Thousands of people gathered together in Copenhagen in December to talk about an issue that has sparked debate throughout the entire world: climate change. These talks seem mysterious and unknown to many Whitman students, so the Black & White set out to give students a closer look. Allison Nordberg, the administrative assistant to the President’s office and director of special events at the United Nations Foundation provided an up and close view of the hundreds of events organized by the U.N. throughout the December weeks, while Scott Stone, a local environmental attorney, gave us an insider’s look into what actually went on behind the conference’s closed doors.

Allison Nordberg (administrative assistant to the President’s office and director of special events at the United Nations Foundation)

Black & White: How was your organization involved in the Copenhagen talks?

Allison Nordberg: Many organizations, including the U.N. Foundation, took advantage of the large concentration of interested parties to host events and meetings related to the negotiations.  As our schedule took shape it was decided that we would host six events over three days during the second week of the negotiations.

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B&W: What type of events did your organization organize in Copenhagen?

AN: During the second week of the negotiations, we hosted three breakfast roundtables and three dinner discussions.  Each event had a different theme related to climate change. Most of the events included an expert speaker who gave a presentation on the topic, and then opened the remaining time to discussion and responses from the other participants.

B&W: What work went into planning the events?

AN: We had several people working on arranging speakers, locations, creating guest lists and invitations, sending the invitations and monitoring the responses. Once in Copenhagen, we had several last minute changes as our events grew, and found that some of our requests had been lost in translation.  It turns out that if you ask for a podium in Denmark, you’ll get a stage, and in order to get a podium so speakers have a place to set their notes, you have to ask for a speaker’s chair.  The day of each of the events was long; we were up early to set up for the breakfast, greet the guests and make sure everything ran smoothly, and then switched focus to that evening’s dinner to finalize the arrangements.

B&W: Who were the keynote speakers at your event?  How did you decide who should be invited? Who were the more noteworthy people who attended?

AN: For most of the roundtables we had one or two experts who gave short presentations on the topic and then opened it up to larger discussions.  The final event of the series was a dinner to honor Senator John Kerry and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for their leadership on climate change issues. Throughout the week we had a stellar group of high-level attendees including several former heads of state, U.N. officials and leaders within the private sector and NGO communities.

B&W: Did you find your time at Copenhagen interesting? Why?

AN: It was an exciting time to be in Copenhagen. People were optimistic about the negotiations and happy to be taking part in the festivities. The city was full of signs and exhibitions related climate change and environmental issues.  There was never a dull moment. It was a once in a lifetime experience I was lucky enough to be a part of, even in a small way.

Scott Stone (environmental attorney from law firm Hunton & Williams)

B&W: What were your responsibilities in Copenhagen?

Scott Stone: I attended the Copenhagen climate conference on behalf of some clients.  My responsibilities were to keep track of what was happening at the conference and to analyze its outcomes.

B&W: I understand that it wasn’t easy for people to gain entry.  How were you able to gain admission to the Copenhagen talks?  What types of events did you attend, and what noteworthy speakers did you hear?

SS: Yes, it did get difficult to enter and leave the conference center. As I understand it, there were about 40,000 people who registered for the conference, but the conference center could only hold 15,000 people.  As for what I attended, the conference was divided between official meetings, which are between and among governments, and side events, which are put on by environmental groups, trade and business associations and international organizations. As for noteworthy speakers, the Copenhagen conference drew more than 100 heads of state, many of whom delivered speeches.

B&W: How were the talks formatted? Would one person talk for a long, structured time? Or was it more informal?

SS: The conference is an annual meeting of governments that have signed and ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-a treaty adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.  The annual conferences are an opportunity for governments to communicate with one another and work toward achieving the treaty’s goals, which in this case is to address climate change.

As for how these conferences are structured, the official meetings are very formal and organized, much like the United Nations General Assembly.  Meetings are typically presided over by a chair person who will work through an already agreed upon agenda, calling on countries and other entities that wish to speak.  When ministers of environment arrive during the second week, the conference gets even more formal, during what is known as the “high level” segment.  And this year, in Copenhagen, with all the heads of state in attendance for the last few days, there was still another layer of formality.

At the same time, there are a lot of side meetings that go on behind closed doors between various governments.  These meetings are still quite serious, but less formal than the official proceedings.

B&W: Did you notice a change in the substance or tone of the proceedings during the time you were there?

SS: There were definitely changes in tone throughout the two weeks of the conference.  Climate change is taken very seriously at these meetings, and there were a number of countries, typically developing countries, whose interventions included highly impassioned calls for swift action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  There was no shortage of strident and dramatic rhetoric at Copenhagen. Overall, it’s just very hard to get nearly 200 countries together and have everyone on the same page, even for something as big and important as climate change.

B&W: How will what has been decided or not decided at Copenhagen affect our country?

SS: This is one of the key questions, and we’re going to have to wait to see how things shake out over the next few months before we can gauge the full impact of what happened at Copenhagen.  It will be interesting to see if and how what happened at Copenhagen will influence the ongoing debate in the Senate over climate legislation, particularly since, for a lot of reasons, anything the United States might do with respect to its emissions needs to be considered and evaluated in terms of what other countries are doing.

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