Climate negotiations picking up pace as numerous world leaders finally arrive in Copenhagen

Throughout Wednesday approximately 30 political leaders will be trickling into Copenhagen to participate in the COP15 conference. Whilst many leaders from smaller nations have been here since last week, the big guns have begun arriving this week.

Negotiations in the Bella center have been sluggish thus far, prompting COP president Connie Hedegaard and German chancellor Angela Merkel to express concern over the slow tempo. Hedegaard indicated on Tuesday the importance of leaving the negotiation trenches and striving to reach a compromise.

Delegates have been under pressure the last few days due to imminent arrival of their respective superiors and the many discussions concerning the formulation of the texts should been solved shortly.

The line-up of speeches in the Bella Center for today consists of 53 speeches, including Swedish environmental minister Andreas Carlgren, who will be speaking on behalf of the EU. The strenuous day of talks will be initiated by the vice-president of Sudan, Nafie Ali Nafie, speaking on belf of China and the G77 nations. In addition, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and British prime minister Gordon Brown will speak to the delegates.

The world leaders will be out in force in earnest on Thursday. NGO representatives, who have attended the Bella Center talks in mass, will have their attendance reduced considerably to make way for the arriving political leaders. The media will also face restricted access to the Bella Center.