Cisco Makes Presence Known at Climate Change Confab

When delegates arrive in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference Dec. 7, Cisco Systems will be extending the conference's global reach with the company's Global Climate Change Meeting Platform.

When the United Nations Climate Change Conference, aka COP15, opens in Copenhagen Dec. 7, Cisco Systems will be there ... and there and there, as its telepresence and conferencing technologies extend the global reach of the climate change delegates.

Cisco's GCCMP (Global Climate Change Meeting Platform) will initially "connect Copenhagen's Bella Center conference venue with a number of government, U.N. and Cisco locations around the world over a private IP ... network," Cisco said in a news release Oct. 29. "The rooms will be connected to 77 Cisco TelePresence rooms, the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, and select Danish embassies around the world ... In addition, the Danish government is arranging [telepresence] access" to Bonn, Germany; Nairobi, Kenya; Geneva; and United Nations Headquarters, in New York.

"Cisco believes that technology has the power to transform how the world manages its energy and environmental challenges," Laura Ipsen, Cisco's senior vice president of global policy and government affairs, said in a statement. "By deploying the Global Climate Change Meeting Platform, we are helping expand the reach of the COP15 negotiations to stakeholders all over the world by providing a virtual meeting experience where participants can overcome barriers of time, distance and culture to make progress in these important issues while minimizing their carbon impact."

The company said in its news release, "Internally, Cisco has deployed 650 TelePresence units in more than 200 cities across 45 countries, which has allowed it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from business travel by an estimated 181,319 metric tons."

"Cisco TelePresence will give delegates attending the conference the ability to meet with colleagues, experts and advisers around the world who can provide them with the counsel and information they need when considering a potential agreement," said Svend Olling, head of department for the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "With the Global Climate Change Meeting Platform we are able to provide delegates with access to accurate and timely advice from experts wherever they may be located in the world. We are inaugurating a meeting platform that brings inclusiveness and efficiency to the political arena."

The Cisco statement explained, "Earlier this year, Cisco was chosen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark as the official technology partner of COP15 ... The objective of COP15 is to set a global agreement among all of the countries of the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities."