COP15 United Nations Climate Change Summit

The UN Climate Change Summit is in full swing in here in Copenhagen. The first week is over, most of the delegates are here and working hard, and many of the world leaders arrive this week. Main negotiations are taking place at a large convention centre called the Bella Centre.

I’ve got media accredidation and have been taking photos inside the Bella Centre. For real-time updates follow @kk on Twitter or check out the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit photoset I’ve created on Flickr. Here’s a recap of the first few days in images…

Youth activists from all over the world are in attendance. It’s important to have them their as they have the must at stake in the fight against global climate change. Many of the worst predictions are likely to happen in these guys lifetimes!

Delegates from all over the world assemple and hash out the nitty gritty details of an international climate change treaty that everyone hopes will be signed here in Copenhagen.

If temperatures rise only 1.5 degrees some countries will dissappear completely. These guys are standing in a demonstration in solidarity with the Association of Small Island States… the nations that will be effected first by climate change and global warming. I’ve heard stories of some nations buying land around the world to relocate too. For them this is an issue of survival… life and death.

Tuvalu is one of the small island states expected to be ravished by the early effects of climate change and global warming. They’ve sent a delegation to let the world know… pls don’t forget about us. I want to buy one of these mats they’ve made and brought from their island as one of my souveneirs from the conference.

Despite the heavy nature of the negotiations… smiles, optimisim, and positive action abound. Check out TckTckTck and 350.org to get involved with the mobilization movement towards battling climate change and calling our world leaders to sign a treaty here at COP15 that is fair and binding.

Myself and a bunch of other rad peeps from around the world including Mija pictured here are blogging, photographing, streaming video, tweating, and doing whatever we can to involve people throughout the world in the events taking place here in Copenhagen. Great content from lots of sites is being aggregated in real-time here at http://live.tcktcktck.org

Awesome director Yang Li wins a UN Award for a video he made in an international contest about climate change.

Gonna be a tough process. The answers aren’t clear. On what to do internationally about climate change there is little consensus. We gotta stick together and stand strong!

Steve Rio is a digital producer from Vancouver who is helping with media management and content strategy. Send him some love… we’re all working long days and nights.

Next photo essay coming will be Streets of Copenhagen. Thx for following along! 🙂