I can’t say I have been to any international summits before; however, I have a feeling I may already know what might play out.  Probably will hear much of what one normally hears any time they listen to a foreign diplomat or representative, lots of rhetoric and no substance.  As you may already notice I am not too optimistic about this summit and believe that it will be more of an airing of grievances from those who feel they have (or will) get the short-end.   The question then is “Well, why are you going if you are such a climate change downer?”  Since its my first conference of this nature I hope my predictions are completely off and will be pleasantly surprised (not holding my breath though.)

Even though I don’t see any substance coming from this event, I do see value.  For starters there will be a large mass of people descending upon Copenhagen all thinking about the same issue and I certainly cannot be displeased with that.  I’ll be interested to see how hard science fits into this broader policy picture as well.  How does one take climate model output/analysis and apply it to legislative and policy discussion?  How do policy makers adapt the language from humble science to hardened policy?  What all is lost in the translation?  Although these questions may not be answered during my short time in Copenhagen I should at least get a taste of the whole process.  In the meantime, better brush up on my H.R. 2454 and C-SPAN.

Written by AHMED TAWFIK.