During the past two days the Bella Centre in Copenhagen has been a place filled with anger. NGOs are disgusted and mad at being sidelined, activists are angry about being beaten up by police and the vegan protesters outside are unhappy that delegates are no longer taking their poorly printed booklets (which come in a very handy bag that serves as an excellent alternative to a laundry bag).
Inside the centre, tempers have also flared, with frustration at the slow pace of negotiations. Negotiators walk around with bleary eyes, a result of late nights without any significant results, while distrust remains among parties about who has met with who in secret to discuss texts.
And something was definitely rotten in the State of Denmark when the Cop president (conference speak for the host’s chief, Connie Hedegaard) resigned to make way for her Prime Minister, Lars Rasmussen, to preside over the talks while she took a back seat in leading negotiations between ministers.
Officially, Hedegaard said she resigned to give someone more senior a chance to head the talks with all the heads of state arriving, but Danish journalists were keen to point out that there is no love lost between the minister and her prime minister.
Then, on Thursday morning, the media became angry when they were confined to the press area and had to have special escorts taking them to the numerous press briefings, or had to get a delegation to fetch them. Some press members nearly organised a riot. The United Nations, already dealing with unhappy NGOs and beaten-up activists, gave in and gave the media greater access.
The UN really didn’t have a choice as unhappy journalists make for unhappy copy about the conference.
Amid all the resentment, snow slowly started falling in Copenhagen on Wednesday night, transforming the Bella Centre into a magical place, and for a moment some delegates exhaled again and actually cracked a smile.
But that was before they slipped on the sludge outside. Inside, the sludge blocked negotiations and rumours started filling the hallways that China would withdraw in the early hours of Thursday morning.
South African journos had to brave the cold to find President Jacob Zuma’s hotel for a special briefing that promised so much more then it delivered — but Zuma will hopefully be a strong voice when he speaks on Thursday night. He is also likely to join a debate with Gordon Brown on BBC on Thursday.
The moods of the delegates were also chilly and despite parties talking about wanting to reach an ambitious deal in Copenhagen, little of that transpired in the negotiations.
Time is running out, and although there are talks about extending the conference to Sunday, delegates mumbled about the current climate of politics inside Bella Centre.