Exclusive meeting with Al Gore

Tuesday, 15 December 2009 12:42

Yesterday, the CoolPlanet2009 team had the pleasure of joining a small and informal evening meeting with Al Gore at the Danish Film Institute.

The meeting took place in a small cinema room where Al Gore was introduced by the president of the GoodPlanet Foundation Yann Arthus-Bertrand – a well-known French photographer and environmentalist and a CoolPlanet2009 cool friend.

“So – what should I say when I address the conference tomorrow?”

This was Al Gore´s opening remark. No speech planned, nothing in particular he wanted to talk about – he simply left it to the crowd to decide what we were going to discuss.  And the suggestions were many. Everybody had their opinion about what was important to stress when Al Gore today addresses the ministers in Bella Center.

Al Gore was also asked whether he would encourage the US to make a serious commitment.

“The US is a world leader and one of the two biggest polluters in the world, but has not been good a convincing its legislators to take action”, Gore said, while also praising Obama for what he has already achieved.

However, he did not hide that fact that he would like to see his country do a lot more.

The event was arranged by the GoodPlanet Foundation, which is organising the Environmental Film Festival at the Danish Film Institute. Every day during COP15 the festival offers free screenings of various movies on climate change and environmental issues.  

Report on melting ice

Together with Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre, Al Gore also presented the global report “Melting snow and ice: A call for action” at the Bella centre yesterday. The report contains new information about how rapidly the world’s snow and ice is melting.

Read the report here.