The high level climate talk that just ended in Koenigswinter, West Germany yesterday was hailed as an ice-breaking event. I wonder what was the carbon footprints this event generated to just "break the ice", supposed to pave a way to Cancun talk in November.

This, however, is a necessary step to ensure that UN climate talk remains on track, and continued to be supported. To recapture the failures in Copenhagen, again, among the complexity of emerging item agendas and "the building block approach" devised in Copenhagen, I see at least four major stumbling blocks that would have to be overcome for a successful negotiation:

Marwaan Macan-Markar interviews NICOLA BULLARD, member of the World Social Forum's international council

BANGKOK, Jan 13, 2010 (IPS) - Ten years after its founding, the World Social Forum (WSF) has come to represent a rallying point for activists and grassroots groups committed to shaping an alternative world view.

"It is very important that we have this space for all of us to come together and shape a vision that reflects our concerns," says Nicola Bullard, a senior associate of Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based think tank championing issues that matter to people in the developing world. "We have been able to build our own discourse, our own thinking, our own legitimacy."

Here we go again. Thursday it was India that joined the ranks of developing economies to announce significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in advance of the United Nations climate change discussions that begin in Copenhagen today.

So where is Thailand? When are we going to demonstrate any seriousness about our role in reducing emissions? After all, scientists warn that we're poised to receive a disproportionate share of the impact of global climate change. Our shores and coastal communities will be significantly impacted if the world as a whole does not start embarking on a major CO2 diet. Bangkok in particular will face major problems from flooding and sea level rise but, so far, hardly a word from our nation's leaders who reside here.

A.T. Biopower is just one of many small power plants to come on line in the past decade as Thailand follows the global trend to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The country's current goal is to generate 20% of the nation's electricity from renewable sources by 2022, a target similar to those set by the EU, UK and Australia.

Bhorn says she's unfamiliar with new energy polices but has become increasingly familiar with environmental changes occurring in her neighborhood since the A.T. Biopower plant came on line in 2005. Her Hor Krai community is not alone. Problems and concerns over social and environmental impacts from biomass power plants have become commonplace over the past few years. Supakij Nantaworakarn, a renewable energy researcher with the Healthy Public Policy Foundation, estimates that protests against biomass projects have been widespread, occurring in at least 20 Thai provinces, many of which are on going.

Taukiei Kitara has travelled a long way from the South Pacific island of Tuvalu to Bangkok to get a simple message across to the thousands of international delegates attending the climate change talks in Bangkok. He wants to tell them that if they don't do something, and fast, rising sea levels will swamp the low-lying tropical islands located midway between Australia and Hawaii he calls home. "I want the world to know that we are one of the most vulnerable countries, and we are here," said Mr Kitara.

But the fisherman-turned-activist has failed so far to get the 4,000 climate change negotiators to lift their heads out of technical texts and come up with a timely solution for people like him. The Bangkok meeting is the second last before the crucial Copenhagen talks later in the year, where it's hoped a climate pact will be struck to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.