On December 5th, 2009, Bing Gong and Eleanore Despina of Transition West Marin left Point Reyes Station, CA for Copenhagen for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), December 7th through December 18th.

"It is without a doubt the most important global meeting ever between nations to determine the fate of life on Planet Earth. The eyes and ears of the planet will be focused on the negotiations on whether an  agreement will be forged to keep the planet from the consequences of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions," they wrote.

Since then, they've been reporting back daily on what’s happening on the streets of Copenhagen and inside the negotiations at the Bella Center.

Follow their reports featuring interviews and audio/video clips from COP15 at www.transitionwestmarin.org.

Here is their report from December 13, 2009 - Day 7 of the Copenhagen Climate negiotiations.

Photo by Louis Blumberg, Nature Conservancy (see original post)

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Copenhagen Diary

by Bing Gong & Eleanore Despina
of Point Reyes Station, CA, USA

Day 7, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009: Today we went to the Imperial Hotel where we met for a briefing on the climate negotiations with the Climate and Energy Funders Group, a delegation of around 40 funders from the US who are here for the final week of the UNFCCC.  Because Eleanore and I are trustees of a small foundation, The Lia Fund, we will join in on their schedule of planned briefings and events.  It is fortunate for us because we are privy to briefings from experts who are well acquainted with the negotiation process, all the issues such as climate justice, market-based schemes and all the arcane language used inside the Bella Center and in all of the NGO’s and Civil Society outside.

Representatives from the Climate Action Network International and other organizations provided a brief overview of the first week of negotiations, describing the positions and role in the negotiations of the major nations and negotiating blocks-US, EU, China, Latin America Countries (LAC), Africa, and Least Developed Countries (LDCs)- and synthesized global perspectives. This orientation stressed the international nature of the negotiations.

Read more.

Photo to the right by Bing Gong / CO2 balloon by America.gov