I arrived in Copenhagen yesterday morning after 14 hours of travel.  Much to my delight, I found that the city of Copenhagen had done an extraordinary job of making it easy to find one's way around.  Even better, a simple stroll in the airport made me realize just how significant this event would be.

As Steve Westly said today at a Hara event, the victory may well have been in the 50,000 people who descended upon Copenhagen to witness and/or participate in any of the thousands of activities taking place in association with COP-15.  Advertisements, banners, posters, exhibits, displays, etc. are all over town, which is buzzing with the excitement and energy of the huge flock of industry, government and NGO thought leaders who are here to discuss how to address climate change from all perspectives imaginable.

After spending the early afternoon catching up on sleep, I had a fantastic meeting with Amit Chatterjee and Ansje Miller of Hara (who I believe will be amongst out next charter members to sign up).  From there, I joined the Climate Action Reserve and Climate Registry delegation at Tivoli Gardens.  Walking into this gorgeous "amusement park" was a great start to an evening that featured great conversations with some of the best and brightest perspectives on climate change.  It was a fantastic start to my week in Copenhagen.

Unfortunately, the UN brought some snags into our plans for attending activities at the Bella Center.  While the UN had anticipated that 15,000 delegates would be attending, rough estimates are coming in at 50,000.  With no capacity for the extraordinary number of people who are in attendance this week, as few as 10% of the NGO delegates will be allowed in to the Bella Center to participate in official side events.  Members of the NGO community waited outside as long as 9 hours to gain entrance and many others were turned away.

This news came to me as a blessing and a curse.

• Curse:  I've come 3,000 miles to participate in the most high-profile and important conference on climate change in my lifetime and there's a 90% chance that I won't get into the facility.
• Blessing: If you had any question as to whether industry and government understood the magnitude of this issue, this conference ought to be the answer.  Whether you question the science or not, the realities of business/market and regulatory forces are here to stay.

The UN will need to do some serious thinking about future COP activities as they were caught unprepared for the exceptional attendance and energy this issue has induced.

Tomorrow morning (in 4.5 hours), I join ACCO Advisory Board member Bruce Klafter, PG&E's Nancy McFadden, HP's Engelina Jaspers and Climate Action Reserve's Margaret Bruce to discuss "The Environment: A Core Corporate Strategy."  More to come soon!