So it begins...the arrival of the ministers and the "high-level" segment

Today marks the first day of the "high-level" segment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. From the second you step onto the conference site, there is a noticeable change amongst all the participants and the atmosphere at the conference.

The lineups to security are long, and the hallways outside the plenary sessions are crowded. There is a long line of photographers and videographers waiting to capture the arrival of dignitaries, heads of state and ministers. While for most of the past two weeks business-casual appeared to be the norm, today many participants have whipped out their best attire, wary of perhaps the attention that is now suddenly paid on them.

Jonathon Porritt: Press the panic button | Comment is free | The Guardian

It's much worse than we thought. An emergency review of climate change is needed immediately
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So here's the brief for John Kerry: suggest on behalf of the US Senate that the IPCC should be reconvened as early as possible in 2009 to undertake an emergency review of all the science that has emerged since 2005. It should be asked to report to the UN by the end of June, giving just enough time to inform the debate about appropriate policy responses before the Copenhagen conference in November.

Totally unrealistic? That depends how seriously Obama and other world leaders take the threat of climate change. But surely it could be done. If multibillion-dollar rescue packages can be put together at the click of a finger in the wake of a banking meltdown, why shouldn't politicians press the panic button in response to a threat that is infinitely graver than that?