Without Further Delay.

I should take the opportunity to congratulate Mexico for organising a successful COP16 Summit which was no easy task. Even to describe what took place at Cancun as the COP16 Summit is a massive understatement.

Beyond the 194 Conference of Parties (COP) process which itself is divided into various ad-hoc working groups such as the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Co-operative Action (AW-LCA) there was also the Conference of Parties serving as members of the Kyoto protocol (CMP) for countries that signed up to the Kyoto protocol. Then there were the various subsidiary bodies dealing with specific aspects of climate change such as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Nairobi Work Program. Added to this there were hundreds of informal negotiations between nations and regional groups of nations. These are always contentious and difficult to host because while every country, quite rightly, thinks they have the right to hold private discussions they hate the idea of all the other countries holding private negotiations. From what I've heard the Mexican hosts were able to navigate this friction point by strictly adhering to the UN compromise of publishing lists of who is meeting who and making sure the rooms where the meetings were taking place were clearly labelled with the participants. This meant that while everybody was able to tell who was meeting who the people in those meetings were able to keep private what was being discussed.

Away from the main business of the COP16/CMP6 there were also the side events at the Cancunmesse exhibition centre which, for want of a better word, was a giant climate change trade fair. Here various nations and non-governmental organisations like charities and trade unions along with private companies like Google and the Economist magazine all set up their exhibition stands in order to share their knowledge of and point of view on climate change. Like other trade fairs there were also various cafes and restaurants where delegates were able to informally meet, chat and network. In a new feature for COP summits the Mexican hosts also set up a Climate Village. The purpose of this was to bridge the gap between the summit and the general public by having exhibitions, a film festival, a go-kart track with green vehicles and nightly music concerts featuring popular Latin acts. Maybe I'm biased but I think this is a very good idea that should stay and perhaps the people involved in climate camp can feel a little bit proud of themselves.

So I think gratitude is owed to the Mexican hosts staging a very good summit. Not only were they able to organise all this in a smooth and safe manner they were also able to inject a bit style that actually made it quite fun. Well as fun as it's possible for a two week science lesson to be.