Ironic, isn’t it, that a road was carved through virgin tropical rainforest to take delegates to the Conference Centre in Belem, to negotiate on climate change?!

The way the world operates is one of the reasons why it is so hard to decide whether or not, given the opportunity, it is worth my while joining the semi-complicit crowds at this big glorified trade show every year…

Rightly or wrongly, I attend this year and will be keeping my blog- RIGHT HERE!- as usual, hoping that any lessons I learn can be spread far and wide. As usual I will also be delivering messages from UK school children and educators to global negotiators…will they listen?

This year has variously been billed as the “workers’ COP”, the “delivery COP”, or the “forest COP”. Education has two days (not to itself but it is there) and there promises to be far more mobilisation of the general public and civil society in Lula’s Brazil.

I fly out on 9th November and back on 17th…watch this space and follow me here for news, updates and hopefully pictures that tell a story…