Day 1 | COP15 | The opening ceremony takes a swipe at sceptics

by Tim Wilson, December 8, 2009

It is day one of COP15 and the main focus of the day is the opening ceremony which, apart from being the first official event, provides the media with the coverage they seek. Four people spoke, 1. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Rasmussen, 2. the Mayor of the City of Copenhagen, Ritt Bjerregaard, 3. the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachuari, and 4. the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer.

There’s no special prize for guessing what they all said – like a broken record they extolled the need for an international agreement to cut emissions to ensure the saving of the world. Interestingly Pachuari took a swipe at climate scepticism and the recent exposure of emails from the UK Hadley Centre attacking illegal behaviour to seek to discredit the IPCC.

Most people haven’t attended a multilateral meeting like COP15 before, so the video above explains the different sections and a quick overview of what will happen over the next two weeks.

Otherwise the events were relatively irrelevant apart from the occasional NGO protest to entertain the media and the announcement of the Fossil of the Day Award.

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