Barcelona diary: Fighting talk, Russian roulette and Gaudí's 'green' makeover

It's the final countdown to Copenhagen, but it only takes seven days to agree a legally binding deal, or so it seems
John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 November 2009 13.17 GMT
Connie takes on America
Connie Hedegaard, Danish environment minister who will be the official host of the Copenhagen talks, took the diplomatic gloves off within minutes of the Barcelona talks opening by challenging the US to set an emissions target:
I feel it [is] very hard to imagine how the US president can receive the Nobel peace prize on December 10 in Oslo only a few hundreds kilometres [from Copenhagen] if he has sent an American delegation to Copenhagen with no offer. I remind the US that it is not the only country in the world that has to have discussions with its domestic parliament. The expectation out there worldwide among populations and the young [is for] the US to deliver on one of the key challenges of our century. The Americans will have to come up [with an offer] one way or another.
Russia's trump card
Word on the grapevine here is that Russia, the dark horse among the Annex 1 [rich] countries, will this week formally side with the US, Europe, Australia and Canada and demand that the Kyoto protocol is ditched in favour of a brand new agreement. That would be rich, if only because it was Russia that actually saved Kyoto back in 2002 when after three years years of hesitation, it ratified it and thereby brought it into force. A case of what Russia gives, Russia may take away.
A right clock-up
The main hall here in Barcelona is vast and anonymous. But in a nice theatrical touch the organisers have installed a countdown to Copenhagen clock right in front of the podium (rather like our online one). As Yvo de Boer stood up to welcome the 3,000 delagates who could squeze into the room, it was reading 34 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes and 30 seconds. "The clock has almost ticked down to zero. Time will fly. I sense a huge desire to succeed," he said. The trouble is, the way it has been positioned, most of the delegations could not see it.
Law and politicsHow long can it really take to put together a legally binding — as opposed to a political — deal? Rich countries say it's not possible in the time left but 30 lawyers and other people from WWF, Greenpeace, the David Suzuki foundation in Canada and elsewhere, sat down to see if it was possible in the remaining time. They managed it it in under seven days. They will present their plan to country delegations tomorrow.
What exactly is the UK doing?The head of the G77, Sudanese ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping, is spotted entering the halls lugging a great bag of papers. "Please tell me what is Great Britain doing? Where is its moral authority. We need it now," he says. Over to the UK delegation, squeezed between the UAE and the Tanzania for the opening ceremony. Jan Thompson, the UK chief negotiator, squashes rumours that climate change secretary Ed Miliband will be dropping in to Barcelona at the end of the week to galvanise the talks. "His press people are coming, but I don't believe he is," she says.
Greenpeace and Gaudí
NGOs have been begun to sound exactly like Denmark's Hedegaard. Here is a Greenpeace spokesman, as its climbers scaled one of Gaudí's iconic Sagrada Familia towers to drop a banner: "A good deal for the climate is still possible. All that is missing is political will from the US, which under President Obama has fallen far behind the rest of the world and is threatening to undermine a planet-saving agreement in Copenhagen."