Eyewitness accounts from Cancun

Eye of the storm: Anya Boyd, Assoc Prof Harald Winkler and Sebataolo Rahlao check out the sights at COP 16.

Anyone following the gathering in the media will know that most of the reports coming out of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, now on in Cancun, Mexico, are of the not-such-good-news kind. But the thousands flocking there have some heady matters to contend with, as the gathering encompasses the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 16) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6), among other things.

We're not saying the three UCT researchers attending the event, which started on 29 November and runs until 10 December, will have any better tidings, but their behind-the-scenes perspectives will make for interesting reading. So follow the blogs of Associate Professor Harald Winkler, Anya Boyd and Sebataolo Rahlao - all of UCT's Energy Research Centre.

"These COPs are a mecca of people coming from a plethora of interest groups," reports Boyd. "It is fascinating to see how cross-cutting the climate change issue really is, and very important to be aware of so as not to get caught up in the bubble that is the academic world of energy research."