Copenhagen takes the carbon-emitting biscuit

Woah! 30,000 people in Copenhagen especially for the UN climate change summit. 10,000 in the summit centre. 2,000 more at the gate. I’ve been to some summits, but this one takes the carbon emitting biscuit!

Rather ominously, this last group are lining up along a chain link fence as if inside a jail. Five metres above them, red lights wink on lampposts, denoting the point to which sea levels will rise by 2050 if the scientists are right and we do nothing.

An amazing cross section of humanity, from Butan, from Djibouti, from Mali, Mauritania, India, New York, the TUC in the UK (he came by train – one of the few!).

Exhilarating too, though, because the thing seems more high-minded than many international sessions one slogs through as a hack.

No country that hadn’t staged an annexe-strewn EU summit could have staged this. Denmark’s meticulous planning has paid off, save that the numbers seeking to attend have swollen even beyond those who booked to come. The media accreditation had to be shut down through sheer weight of numbers.

Everyone is talking about Obama’s change of heart – or is it to plan? He was to have come here on Wednesday en route from picking up his Nobel prize in nearby Oslo, but has thought better of it. He’s now coming on the final day.

Either he expects such a weak a deal that he’ll be able to sign it, or in some magical way he will come with something rather better than what he has promised thus far.

Either way the UN summit chair, Yvo de Boer, tells me in an interview for Channel 4 News tonight that there must be a legally binding treaty on carbon emission targets, and a deadline for signing it must be no later than June – otherwise the summit will have failed.

Tough stuff at last?