14 December: Hello Hopenhagen!

Environment

14.12.2009

by Florin Orban

Dossier index

Copenhagen 2009

The hope of a greener world. That’s the real issue at stake at the Copenhagen Summit and most of the events surrounding it.

The queue outside the Bella Centre at 4pm. Some people have been waiting for 9 hours.

Photo: ausSMC (flickr)

I found that out the moment I landed in the airport of Danish capital.

Before I could even pick up my luggage or change some money, I was handed a leaflet describing Hopenhagen - the city of hope, an expression of the "movement of people all over the world calling on their leaders for a positive outcome at COP15".

That was my first and today pretty much only contact with the UN Climate Conference.

And that was because first on my agenda I had to solve my accommodation problem. And this turned out to be a real issue given the sheer number of delegates, NGOs and journalists in town for the summit. It's not just the hotels that are pushed for space.

Today the Bella Centre where the conference is taking place was literally overwhelmed and people had to queue for hours in the freezing cold to try to pick up their accredition. Reports say up to 45,000 people have registered, yet the venue itself holds just 15,000. So probably not the best organised conference in the world!

As world leaders start to arrive later this week the numbers of journalists and activists allowed in will fall rapidly, so I guess we can expect more problems.

Hvalsø, a beautiful village - not so handy for the Copenhagen Summit though!

Photo: Florin Orban (RRI)

Even just finding a room was a real adventure, which, fortunately, ended well for me. I ended up at a cozy manor house, in an old village named Hvalsø next to a beautiful forest. The area is peaceful and really nice - but it is 60km out of Copenhagen!

Fortunately the price is decent, not even close to the astronomical hotel tariffs in the Central Copenhagen area, which would severely dint any budget, especially that of an Eastern European journalist...