Day 1 – COP23 in Bonn Journal – Arriving

What happened in Bonn on the first day of COP23?

My day at COP23 started, after flying in at 5 PM, with driving around the Bonn area in a taxi, trying to find our airbnb place. And then there was nobody there, so I could not leave my baggage there – about 25 kg worth of Climate Gamble books and decarbonizing cities -studies (download pdf here), so off I went with my stuff to the conference area with the taxi. Of course I ended up carrying my baggage for the whole night…

Me and Eric Meyer, badged-up and ready to join the COP, with Climate Gamble 2017 edition in tow.

At last I made it to the conference area, met with my good friend Eric, got my badge for the Bula Zone (the more restricted area for delegates, so that’s an upgrade from two years ago) and then went for the opening event at the Bonn zone. Bonn zone has the booths of various organizations and countries, such as the Nuclear for Climate -initiative (N4C). Free food, free drinks, interesting conversations with interesting people, handed out a couple Climate Gambles and Decarbonizing Cities -reports. A good night, all in all.

Outreaching and discussing

Earlier that day, the people at Generation Atomic and Nuclear for Climate had already made some impact on the ground. The N4C booths are located right next to a booth of a Danish anti-nuclear organizations. Their goal was to “shut them all down as soon as possible.” After some lengthy discussions, their stand moderated to something along: “ok, the currently operating plants should be allowed to stay online for their operational lifetimes.”

Later in the evening, they had moved to something like this: “If there are small reactors that can support distributed grids, that are proliferation-proof, can’t melt down, have strong construction regulations and are built to specs, the we can have this conversation.”

Face to face discussions, being respectful, shared values. It works, sometimes at least.

Students got it right

Another encounter was with some college students who had made a project, calculating how we could mitigate climate change effectively. After fiddling with their numbers and sliders for some time, they arrived to the conclusion that it is only doable with massive amounts of nuclear energy. We knew that, but it is nice to see independent efforts come to the same conclusion, especially when they are not limited by fear and politics that often limit the thinking and analysis of the older generations.

Stay tuned!

ps. I will write and publish my journal from COP23 when I have the time to write, so its not real time.