For the quintillionth time, I’ve heard the senior negotiators saying that the real negotiations happen at mid night and decisions are taken after many people go to sleep. So my curiosity-saturated self decided to stay overnight during negotiations to observe what actually happens at night.
I confess of my limited knowledge and understanding of issues during my participation in COP15 at Copenhagen. At that time, it was very difficult for me to trace the ongoing discussion on technology transfer. The meeting on the first day of the second week went quite long and all my colleagues had already left the venue. Because I was so resolute (and dare I say, excited) about experiencing the late night negotiations LIVE, I reluctantly ignored other tempting invitations for dinner and such outside the Bella center (the UNFCCC venue). The late night meeting ended without any conclusion, and it was then that I realized that it was already 3 am in the morning. As it was very cold outside, I decided to spend the remaining few hours until dawn inside the Bella Center, and thus, landed on a sofa. I didn’t have a clue when my eyelids evaded me and I fell asleep.
I was deep into my dreams when I was trudged back to reality by a stern voice of a tall dark UN security personnel, who, rather ruthlessly, reminded me that I had violated the security regulations by sleeping inside the UN premises. I wanted to reply back, respond, say something. But my half-sleepy, weary self was only waiting for him to disappear so that I could rest my eyes again. The same scene repeated for about three times, one can only imagine how irritated the security personnel had become at that moment! But before he came to wake me up for fourth time, I forced my sleepy fatigued self to stand up and rush for coffee machine!
