"LIMA, Peru (AP) — The current U.N. climate talks will be the first to neutralize all the greenhouse gas pollution they generate, offset by host country Peru's protection of forest at three different reserves, organizers say.
Now the bad news: The Lima conference is expected to have the biggest carbon footprint of any U.N. climate meeting measured to date.
At more than 50,000 metric tons of carfb/phbon dioxide, the negotiations' burden on global warming will be about 1 1/2 times the norm, said Jorge Alvarez, project coordinator for the U.N. Development Program.The venue is one big reason.
It had to be built.
Eleven football fields of temporary structures arose for the 13-day negotiations from what three months ago was an empty field behind Peru's army's headquarters.
Concrete was laid, plumbing installed, components flown in from as far as France and Brazil.
Standing in the midday sun here can get downright uncomfortable, but the Lima sun is not reliable.
That's one reason solar panels were not used.
For electricity, the talks are relying exclusively on diesel generators.
Organizers had planned to draw power from Peru's grid, which is about 52 percent fed by non-polluting hydroelectric power.
"We worked to upgrade transformers and generators but for some reason it didn't work," said Alvarez.
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