A great deal of my energy over the past week has gone into understanding what is happening at the negotiations. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learnt so far.

The negotiations are the largest of a series of global meetings every year that tries to bring together Governments, NGOs, youth, media, activists and more for two weeks to come to a common understanding of what to do about climate change. The emphasis here is on “try”.

Putting the negotiations in context, they are as advanced the world has ever got at addressing an issue as big and complex as climate change. Climate science is more than ever showing that to avoid the impacts of dangerous climate change, we need more action sooner, otherwise costs are going to get mental, like, US$500 billion/year for developing countries alone. No pressure then!

What do the negotiations even look like, and why is it confusing?

At the negotiations, there so many events going on all the time, and there is such a spectrum of views from different perspectives, that it quickly becomes an overwhelming flood of information that gets difficult to see through. Here’s a simplified view of the main elements of the negotiations:

• Formal government discussions (plenaries): very political, each country tries to maximise their own interests
• Individual government pavilions: showcasing countries and holding meetings
• Side events: meetings to discuss the ins and outs of a good agreement – often very different to what is discussed in the plenaries
• Actions: stunts done in public to make a point, must be approved by the UN in advance (eg Fossil of the day, an ironic award ceremony for countries that do their ‘best’ to block progress)
• Press and media: commentary of the progress of the negotiations (they also love the actions)
• Interventions: special speaking opportunities at plenaries (eg Youth)
• Meetings for youth groups to give updates and organise together

Embarrassingly, it took me about two days even to figure out the complicated scheduling system, and even then it just gave me more difficult choices – eg I found it tough to choose between a talk on low-carbon transport options, a meeting between the secretariat and youth, or an action highlighting governments actions that pass or fail the climate test. Ouch! I chose to meet with the secretariat, which turned out to be a fascinating conversation.

However what is most striking to me is the enormous gulf between what the governments are negotiating in the plenaries, and what the NGOs and the IPCC are saying is needed to successfully and fairly address climate change. The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to “…prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system…”, and while so many good things have happened to this end, right now it feels a long way from being the reality. This is just the beginning, and I’m glad to be here.