Today was the inauguration of the official COP16 meeting, which kicked off with an opening speech by the Mexican President Felipe Calderón, and Executive Secretary to the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres. Unfortunately, I and many others were not able to be there at the opening ceremony as NGO delegates who had not already acquired their badges had to wait till the afternoon to get their pass to the COP16, due to 'first day overload' of registrations.

Just as well, as most of my day went to sorting out the various options for the printing of the GEN-Europe flyer, which we, the GEN delegates, plan to distribute widely over the next two weeks here in Cancun. Also, much more time than what I had expected is going to the process of figuring out how to get to the locations of the different meetings and side events taking place in and around Cancun. To our surprise, the sites of the events are so dispersed that it can take up to an hour or more to get from one place to the next, and not all have public or free transport to them, meaning that each day has to be planned well in advance, and there is not much possibility or flexibility for 'venue hopping'.

Even more time is going to the process of trying to get hold of updated programmes of the events,  including within the official COP16 meeting. Frustratingly, the websites of most of the events are either incomplete or not even up-and-running, making the planning rather difficult.

Having asked around, much of this is due to the poor organisation and delay in getting some of the side events up and running (including their venues, logistics, websites and programmes). For instance, while the organisers of Klimaforum had supposedly expected close to 1000 people present at their opening ceremony on Saturday, and invited high profile guest speakers (including our very own GEN representative Albert Bates as well as elders of different indigenous groups) to open the inauguration, only a handful of people were present at the starting time, and organisers were still busy running around sorting out logistics.

OK, so it is only Day 1 of the official COP16 and international participants, delegates and activists are still arriving and orienting themselves. Even so, for those who have been involved in the preparations of the side events and NGO representation here in Cancun, there is a sense of frustration and disappointment, especially as the process of preparation has also been one laden with unmet promises, competition rather than collaboration, and egos taking over higher purpose. Just to give a couple of examples: the GEN delegation for Cancun had initially been told that we would have a space in The Messe (the exhibition space at the official COP16 venue), to then later be told that we no longer had a space. We were then told we could have a space to exhibit at the Klimaforum 'tent site', to then be told, again, that we do not have a space there either.

What also surprises me is the lack of collaboration and synergy between that different side events, which - being so dispersed - only end up 'diluting' the impact, rather than joining forces and sharing and connecting in one or two common spaces. Supposedly there were conflicting views between different organisers, which has resulted in the separation of different NGO 'groups' visible here now. Once I have scoped the scene a bit more I may be able to give some deeper explanations  and reasoning to this, and perhaps even my own opinions of the pros and cons to the setting of the Cancun climate change talks (both in and out of the official meeting site).

The good news is that GEN has been given a 2-hour slot for presentations and panel discussion in the main space of the Klimaforum on both Wednesday the 1st of December as well as Wednesday the 8th of December, between 11.30 and 13.30. We, the GEN delegation, are in the process of preparing for this Wednesday's slot, and I will report on this when I have further details. Meanwhile, we are connecting beautifully with the Mexican GEN delegates and there is a strong sense of family.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have some more news (and photos!) from the official COP16 meeting, and a final copy of the pamphlet to upload on the website.

Till then,

Aili