What's the Climate at COP15?

Today's report comes from Barbara and Lesley.

The high level negotiations have started at the COP, where it's crunch time for countries to hammer out a climate deal. Inside the Bella Centre where the summit is taking place, there is a definite feel of tensions rising. Small scale demonstrations organised by groups within the building are taking place daily. News reporters and film crews are everywhere, and most media attention is focused on some of the big names attending the conference this week like Gordon, Arnie and Al Gore, who have come to give more weight to the talks, hopefully improving the prospects of a stronger deal.

On Tuesday morning, Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, attracted a huge crowd and was hailed as a climate hero for his work in reducing California's emissions and ensuring that 17% of the state's energy comes from renewable sources. He spoke of the positive work being done in the US such as the giant wind farm recently built in Texas - the largest one in the world - and of research being carried out into energy generation from green algae. He was upbeat and positive about the task ahead and somewhat inevitably ended his speech with the words "I'll be back." Aside from Arnie's words, we should remember that good work for farm animals and sustainable agriculture is happening in California too, especially with the vote for 'Proposition 2' at the last US election, which heralded a California-wide ban for some farm animal confinement systems such as battery hen cages.

It would be easy in the tense, high powered situation of the COP for farm animals and sustainable agriculture to be overlooked – but they were there right at the front of discussions. As high level talks began in the afternoon Prince Charles addressed diplomats and negotiators. A longtime supporter of Compassion's concerns about humane and sustainable farming, he warned the summit that the planet is in crisis and said "We appear intent upon consuming the planet... placing global food security at ever greater hazard". He added: "it must be genuinely sustainable agriculture that helps to empower local communities and small farmers". This is of course the subject of Compassion's two latest reports Eating the Planet and Beyond Factory Farming (PDF) which look at sustainable and humane farming solutions.

Prince Charles also spoke of the Rainforest Project which he set up to protect the world's forests, currently being cleared at an alarming rate. Forests are home to many of the world's species and also play a crucial role in regulating the climate by locking up carbon which would otherwise be in the atmosphere and regulating rainfall over much of the world. One of the main drivers behind deforestation is the intensive livestock industry which relies on large amounts of feed grain, grown on deforested land.

Outside the COP, even in the freezing cold, things are heating up. This morning thousands of people are expected to demonstrate outside the Bella Centre and there are rumours that the police may try to seal off the building for some hours, so simply accessing the talks is becoming more difficult. However Compassion will continue to try to be at the heart of things and tomorrow we'll give a key talk at the Klimaforum 'people's climate summit', to build grassroots support for our messages on humane and sustainable agriculture.