COP 21: The Security Situation.

Today I've been continuing to work through the text of this planned climate change agreement. I am currently dealing with Section K that deals with compliance.

Unfortunately this is one of the areas that is significantly under-developed. As a result rather then simply choosing from a list of options I'm going to have to try and develop the text. This is likely to take me until the end of the week.

Obviously though in light of Friday's (13/11/15) violence in the host city of Paris, France I do have to take a few moments to talk about the security arrangements for the COP21 Summit where this agreement is scheduled to be signed.

I should start by saying that I'm not particularly alarmed.

Of the six targets that were attacked only one - the Stade de France - had what I would consider a dedicated security perimeter.

It's been more then a decade since I worked in football security but even then we were well aware of suicide bombers desire to blow themselves up in a crowded area like a football stadium and the consequences of such a thing happening. As a result we had procedures in place to stop it from happening.

It seems that at Stade de France those procedures worked perfectly. The - now confirmed - two suicide bombers were unable breach the stadium perimeter and blew themselves up outside killing only themselves and an Egyptian tourist who was initially thought to be a third bomber.

The football match continued unaffected and actually at the end of the game spectators were held inside the stadium because it was considered one of the safest places in the city at that point.

The COP21 Summit itself will be held at a specially constructed site in Paris-Le Bourget which is on the very outskirts of Paris close to Le Bourget Airport.

Although it's not the sort of detail you would include in an online registry the site has been specifically designed with security in mind. As such it has an even stronger security perimeter then the one at Stade de France which worked just fine.

The perimeter around the COP21 can be strengthened even further by simply bringing more security staff/soldiers. There is obviously a degree of concern about crowding at entry points so what they might do is establish an outer perimeter at which only people's accreditation is checked allowing them to pass quickly through. The more time consuming security searches will then be carried out at an inner perimeter.

The general thinking on this sort of thing is that if a threat gets as far as the perimeter then the security plan has already failed. As a result there will also be a large intelligence operation to eliminate threats before they emerge. This will be largely unseen and will take place far away from the venue itself.

Almost two weeks prior to Friday's attacks France announced that it would be suspending the Schengen border free agreement and re-introducing border controls for the duration of COP21.

Although you can't completely eliminate illegal entry through sea ports etc this should significantly reduce the chances of any threats from outside of France entering the country during the summit. It's a pretty standard procedure that was actually used by Germany in 2007 to keep anti-G8 protesters out.

There is of course the issue of threats that are already in France. This is an area that does cause some concern because France has long complained that it lacks the resources to properly monitor all the homegrown threats. However that's really only a problem when you've got to monitor them indefinitely. It is much easier to keep people locked down for just two to three weeks.

Also as part of the State of Emergency legislation that France is bringing in in response to Friday's attacks house arrest has been introduced. This eliminates the needs for large surveillance teams because instead you just park a police car outside the person's house. If they try and leave they'll be immediately arrested and sent to prison.

It has also been confirmed that US President Barack Obama will be attending COP21. Although they might not be in a desperate rush to do so at the moment the US intelligence services have all sworn an oath to protect their President and they are prepared to go to extreme lengths to do so. So alongside the French intelligence operation there will also be a vast US operation looking over their shoulder and plugging any gaps.

All of the other Heads of Government/State (HOGS) who've confirmed that they'll be attending - Russian President Vladimir Putin for example - will also be bringing their own intelligence operations. So it's likely that not only will every potential terrorist in France be spied upon they'll also be several other intelligence agencies spying on the people spying on the terrorists.

Therefore my main concern is actually how all this will effect the mood or atmosphere of the summit.

It's well established that terrorists carry out their attacks because they know they can't defeat their enemy. So instead they try and created an atmosphere of terror that distracts their enemy causing them to defeat themselves.

Added to that the increased security measures could contribute to a threatening and suffocating atmosphere in which it's quite difficult to get work done.

For example soldiers in combat fatigues carrying assault rifles which can be quite intimidating to people who aren't used to be around them. Also simply avoid the hassle I suspect that delegates will enter the perimeter once in the morning and remain inside the perimeter until they leave at the end of the day.

That said most of these summits are hugely secure these days - COP20 was actually held in a military barracks. Therefore I don't think seasoned Summiteers will be in anyway intimidated by the security measured.

Plus in my experience of previous COP's people tend to end up sleeping at their desks rather then in their hotel beds.

I am though a little concerned about some of the youth delegates and those form the less experienced observer groups. They could get frustrated by the increased security and as a result paranoid enough to think the measures are an attempt to keep them out rather then a necessity to allow them to attend by keeping them safe.

20:50 on 16/11/15 (UK date).