Do you wish you’d come to the COP17 climate change talks in Durban? Had you hoped to get a glimpse of bureaucrats bureaucrating? Well, this is how Day 1 went down.

Few places in SA make you as keenly aware of the environment as Durban, while a bead of sweat trickles down the back of your leg. Summer in Durban is a beautiful thing. It makes you appreciate the finer things in life, such as cold water, airconditioning and (no offence, Durbanites) that you live somewhere else.

In terms of the UN talks themselves, all of those are taking place in the ICC. There’s a large expo hall outside, and a number of peripheral initiatives. But if these talks deliver anything, it’s going to come out of this building.

You can feel the bee-hive-esque industry, the purpose, as people mill about the venue, get lost, ask someone for directions, get more lost.

So, you’ve probably heard the major snippets of news online: “We need a global solution, no just a focus on national interests.” This sentiment was echoed by President Jacob Zuma, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, and SA’s International Relations Minister, and now president of COP, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

That was the main message of the day: countries need to stop looking after themselves because climate change is a global problem. Whether their poignant comments will make any difference remains to be seen.

Ms Figueres made an “appeal to negotiators that they don’t delegate issues upwards. Leave out only the political ones” for next week when the heads of state arrive at the talks.

But that’s the main reason that the COP talks haven’t really gotten anywhere recently: politics and the protection of national interests. Take a look at this link for a (very) brief overview: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=159320

The word of the day has been “reassurance”. Developing countries want reassurance that they will be given funding to deal with climate change, while developed countries want reassurance that everyone will come to the party on emissions targets.

But those decisions can’t be made on the ground by negotiators and bureaucrats. The negotiators are here with mandates from their governments – so if minds need changing, they need to change up there.

And it makes you feel sorry for personified Durban: “Durban needs to do this”, “Durban should deliver that”. And what no one has said, but which someone should: “We want Durban to achieve the impossible … And if it can’t, it’ll be Durban’s fault.”