Representatives from the Pacific Island communities most threatened by rising sea levels, are attending the Copenhagen UN summit, together with Australian human rights advocates, to ensure that the human face of climate change is not forgotten.

Monday 7 December was the first day of the conference and our delegation’s third day in Copenhagen.

The weekend saw us mastering the Metro, the S train, a big Climate Action Network International strategic planning meeting, the grey skies, the overheated buildings and our tiny cabins which are just a little bigger than sleeper cabins in trains. Two to a room and the most agile laddering it up to the top bunk, we were most excited to find that our tiny cabins come with tiny en-suites. We had imagined ourselves scampering along cold corridors at night to get to a communal bathroom.

Six of us were able to register without much waiting on the weekend but Patricia Corowa who replaced Tafue Lusama at the last minute was not yet in the system. So on Monday, Geraldine and Patricia spent 3 hours standing in the cold in a long queue not even sure if her name would be there but, alleluia, it was, and they returned home exhausted, aching but bearing her official ID tag and free transport passes. Pelenise came to Patricia’s aid with a massage. As I write, Phil Glendenning is queueing up armed with a book to read to get his.

UN conferences are more than administration and security. The PCP also launched itself on the Cop circuit on Monday. The Kiribati Government delegation asked us to meet with them in order to support them in their preparations for their side-event. We’ll be meeting with them again tonight to finalise preparations. They also asked if they could borrow Maria to dance at their event. International human rights lawyers who invited Maria to London earlier in the year have also asked her to be on a panel in their side event. Pelenise has been invited to be a part of an OXFAM side event.

We were amazed to find that the side event we are presenting on Friday morning, ‘ Pacific Calling for Human Rights and Climate Justice’, has been chosen as one of the events that The Observer Organisations Liaison Team for potential webcast during the COP 15. It means we have to be a bit more slick in our presentation and more careful in the presentations but it will mean a much broader circulation. More later…

Klimaforum is a People’s Summit that is going alongside the UN Conference and our delegation is also planning to be an integral part of it. We are presenting a two-hour event there on 17 Dec.

Klimaforum with the help of the Danish Dept Foreign Affairs has provided significant funding to make it possible for people from low income countries to attend including our three Pacific Islanders. It was a most pleasant experience going along to Klimaforum for our Pacific Islanders to book in and organise their per diems. The warm welcome and hospitality, the helpfulness of everyone there and the genuine delight in meeting us has left us looking forward to participating in the grassroots event just as much as participating in the huge UN event.

Tangaroa and Pelenise did an interview with the Copenhagen times and sent them some recent photos of the king tides in Tarawa. It will most likely be published tomorrow.

More later….

Jill

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The delegation consists of eight people:-