Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Tuesday, December 6, 2006.

The “Information for Participants” booklet said: THE HOST COUNTRY WILL BE HOSTING A CULTURAL EVENING ON TUESDAY, 6 DECEMBER AT 8 P.M. IN THE MONTREAL BIODOME. INVITATIONS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED. The “Daily Programme” of Tuesday, 6 December 2005 clarified: “In order to gain admittance, please present your invitation card. The card has been distributed via pigeonholes and the relevant constituencies.” Considering that the Press may be a “relevant constituency”, I asked at the Press Counter and was told they were not given any, but I should ask at the Information Counter. There I was told that the Canadians gave not enough invitations, and thus they were distributed only to the Country Delegations and to the Secretariat. I said to myself, so what, they also did not give as invitations to the First Monday traditional get together - this having been a first considering the previous COPs - and I was at all COPs - it just shows once more that Canada was not up to hold this meeting.

Then, at the Canadian Delegation Daily Press Conference, a lady told us that the day’s program includes an evening hosted by the Canadian Delegation - this seems quite an astonishing announcement to people that were excluded - did she think that it is relevant for our reporting? She did not stay to the end of the Press Conference, but I decided to raise the question anyway. It was the first question of the session. The main Canadian speaker is a very courteous lady, she seemed honestly not to know the answer. The gentleman who chairs the Canadian press sessions was firm that “this is a question of protocol and does not belong to the press conference”. I insisted that the Secretariat says the tickets were sent out to the recipients by the Canadian government and not the UN. After the session I asked again the UN officials in charge of the Press and was told that usually such tickets are given to them for distribution but Canada did not send any tickets. So I concluded that this is may have been one more example of pass the blame in this crazy non-functioning multi layered structure - UN, Canada, Quebec, City of Montreal. Later it came to me that this probably had a hidden meaning. You see, with the Country delegates and the UN Secretariat gone, the rest of us who came here really to do work, could indeed further the cause of creating programs for a more sane world. This despite the lack of will on the part of many delegates and the conference leadership.

Instead of going to the Canada-UN social pow-wow, I had the chance to participate at two very worthwhile activities. Obviously, the organizers of these activities had no intention to go to the Montreal socials.

I. The, 6-7:30pm, World Bank organized release of the book “Wealth of Nations”. The book was presented by Kirk Hamilton in a session chaired by Ken Newcombe. The Argentinian Secretary Environment and Sustainable Development, Sr. Atilio Armando Savino, our friend from last year’s Buenos Aires Meeting,
came directly from the airport to speak at this book launching seminar. The main issue of the book is that it introduces the concept of an “intangible capital” to go along with the “natural Capital” and the “human capital”when evaluating the wealth of a nation. This intangible capital is made up in large part by the rule of law. The book gives examples of countries where this ”intangible” actually allows for development when the natural capital is close to zero. Because of the importance of this book we will review it for our book reviews section on this web.

II. The 7:30-9pm, U.S. Climate Action Network (USCAN) organized session with representatives from various States of the US which have something to show in their efforts on combating GHG emissions on the State and groupings of States (Regions) levels. The last speaker in this seminar was Amy Royden-Bloom, senior staff associate of the Washington DC based “State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators - Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials” (STAPPA/ALAPCO)
 aroyden-bloom at 4cleanair.org She presented us with a chart that includes the States of: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana,New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington. That is a list of 28 States members of the Administrators’ organization, who have initiated GHG programs ahead of the US Federal Government - some of these states at a quite advanced stage. She chose to speak about Arizona, New Mexico and North Carolina. Her presentation was preceded by other presenters from Connecticut, California and Oregon.

We learned that 34 US States taken by themselves would be placed in between the 50 highest energy users and highest polluters in the world. As two large regional groups have been formed - The Western Governors Alliance, and the New England Governors-Eastern Canada Premiers Association - these two groupings are part of the ten largest energy users and polluters in the world. The size of these groups provides thus also tremendous potential for the creation of GHG emissions reduction programs.

Yesterday we listened to presentations by the representatives of NESCAUM - The Clean Air Association of the Northeast States. This is a grouping that will reach 9 States based on the previous six New England members with the addition of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. We also witnessed an international ceremonial signing act between the States Of California in the US and the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Under the Leadership of Professor Jose Goldemberg, and with the help of Governor Schwartzenegger, this could be the kernel of a new life giving spirit to repair the Montreal weakening Kyoto second round; then who knows, the folks that spent the evening in the Montreal Biosphere may also have seen the light while being there. Perhaps they return changed - who knows.

Last night I heard Canadian “guru” - Dr. David Suzuki describing earth as a baseball wrapped in a cellophane thin skin (a saran-wrap in his language) - that is the comparable scale-size of the biosphere. That is all allowed for our life - will the biosphere-going folks have seen the light there? I am sure that those that stayed behind saw that it is indeed possible perhaps to move ahead without them.