I arrived in Copenhagen this afternoon, narrowly escaping Chicago during a lull in last night's blizzard. The registration lines at the Bella Center were not particularly long -- only 50 or 60 people were waiting to register as observers. Once I had my badge, I took a look around to see what I could learn about the workings of this event.

The first thing to see at the climate change confererence is a very large exhibit hall filled with displays from non-governmental organizations from literally everywhere in the world.

Every organization seems to have about the same amount of floor space. There are some variations in the styles of exhibits -- some sections have tables with literature and table-top display, and other areas have what appear to be pre-made kiosks that only required graphics to be applied -- with a small counter in front.

These displays are not highly designed, but have more of a creative, street market sort of appearance. Many of the folks staffing the displays seemed very young -- and even those who weren't so young had a youthful enthusiasm about them -- so it's somewhat like a big multicultural university event. You can feel the energy in the room.

The next thing to notice is all the rooms along both sides of the corridors between the larger spaces in the Bella Center. Many of the rooms had "side events" in progress.

Most of the side events I saw were smaller -- with somewhere between 20 and 50 participants -- but it is clear that there are larger side event rooms where hundreds could be accommodated.  From the list of side events, it appears that quite a few involve delegations from particular countries or regions. There seemed to be serious business taking place.

For instance, the Nepal session I observed was discussing the development of social and environmental standards for national REDD+ programs. REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, is one of the more controversial new issues being wrestled with at this conference.

The basic concept is simple: Governments, companies or forest owners in the southern latitudes should be rewarded for keeping their forests instead of cutting them down.

REDD developed from a proposal in 2005 by a group of countries calling themselves the Coalition of Rainforest Nations. Two years later, the proposal was taken up at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali (COP-13).

The Bali Action Plan calls for:

"Policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries."

The above paragraph is referred to as "REDD-plus." It is worth reading closely, because apparently it is the only agreed-upon text describing REDD.

"REDD-plus" could have serious implications for indigenous people, local communities and forests. It sounds good, but the details must spell out what can and can't be done, how to work with the indigenous people, and how to prevent loopholes from leading to unintended consequences.

This is a serious issue with many concerns and conflicting positions. It also appears that there is real effort being put into coming to some agreement on REDD during COP15. But it will be difficult to find a way to make everyone happy.

See www.redd-monitor.org/redd-an-introduction/ for more information on the issues and controversy surrounding REDD.


Click here for full coverage of COP15 from the GreenBiz.com and ClimateBiz.com teams, including posts from Copenhagen by Executive Editor Joel Makower and Senior Contributor Marc Gunther, and from dozens of guest contributors from the business world.

Top image courtesy of the Bella Center. All other images courtesy of Steve Thomas.