Night in the Bella Center

Rachna Lal, USP Journalism, Climate Pasifika

Copenhagen 18 December -  With negotiations reaching the final 24 hours, hundreds of delegates have had to spend nights here at the Bella Center due to meetings ending in the early hours of the next morning.  

Several nights before that, negotiaters had been up in meetings the whole night and were rushing back to refresh then return, while others were entering the building to start meetings at 5am.

Diane McFadzien, the Policy Coordinator of WWF, slept at the conference venue after the negotiations ended at 4.30 am on Friday morning.  She said all the couches at the venue were filled with people sleeping on them and had to sleep on the floor.   

“There must have been like more than 100 people who stayed back and many were here because they would have had to come back early before 8 a.m. the next morning anyway.”

She indicated that the last metro train leaves at 4.30 a.m. and when they missed it, she and her colleague came back into the center and spent the night in one of the negotiations room.

“We slept hidden behind tables so that no one would see us but in the morning we woke up with the sounds of a technician checking the microphones and when we were trying to quickly get up, he said it is all right and we could go back to sleep,”  McFadzien said.

After spending two full days in the conference venue, McFadzien is definitely looking forward to going back to her comfy bed.

“I feel so tired and I cannot wait to get out of this place,” she added.

And who said those who get to travel across the world on meetings have all the fun!