I ended last night and started my day with former Vice President Al Gore; and I am one of the legions of people who was inspired to action by his slideshow years ago. Last night, we spoke for some time at the Skoll Foundation reception here in Copenhagen, and this morning I was at a briefing and discussion with him and about 10 executive directors of environmental groups from the U.S. and beyond. He’s here at the negotiations, meeting behind the scenes with many of the key negotiators, and made a speech this afternoon.

Former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore called Tuesday for world leaders to meet in Mexico City in July to complete a climate treaty under negotiation in Copenhagen.

Gore told a standing-room audience in the Danish capital that a summit in Mexico City previously scheduled near the end of next year was too late and too close to mid-term US elections.

"I do not believe that we can wait until next November or next December," said Gore, a Nobel peace prize winner for his work on raising awareness of climate change.

He’s clearly working hard to stay optimistic and to fortify the negotiations, even as everyone agrees that things are looking bleak. I gave him a sense of what I had seen and felt in the last week – the desperation and determination of the developing world to get a binding treaty with substantial finance and reductions targets from developing countries that amounts to something more than a ‘suicide pact’. The truth that the global community has left 450ppm behind as a meaningful target and is pushing for 350ppm as the only solution that can save us.

Meanwhile, Senator Boxer held a press conference back home in the United States claiming “America is acting” and highlighting “ground-up” action from local and state governments and the private sector. She sang praises for last week’s long awaited finding by the EPA that coal endangers public health and must be regulated. Similar press-driven side events are being hosted throughout the Bella Center, highlighting U.S. local government action and the business case for action on climate change.

And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton published an op-ed in the NY Times:

Our world is on an unsustainable path that threatens not only our environment, but our economies and our security. It is time to launch a broad operational accord on climate change that will set us on a new course.

What is an operational accord? We live and die by our language over here. What matters the most is left in brackets. Clinton went on to say that:

A successful agreement depends upon a number of core elements, but two are shaping up to be essential: first, that all major economies set forth strong national actions and resolve to implement them; and second, that they agree to a system that enables full transparency and creates confidence that national actions are in fact being implemented.

This issue of transparency and verification is shaping up to be another key challenge -- the U.S. is pushing hard for verification of progress on China’s commitments on reducing carbon intensity, and China is standing strong in saying they won't commit to more than they did in Bali. Another key point Secretary Clinton made in her op-ed was regarding phasing out fossil fuel subsidies -- a key call to action for the 1Sky campaign right now:

President Obama … spearheaded an agreement, first among the G-20 and then among the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations, to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. This effort alone could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent or more by 2050.

We need to push on this because just a few short weeks ago, the U.S. Export-Import bank made a $3 billion investment in Exxon’s liquid gasification project in Papua New Guinea -- while the U.S. Government's entire proposed financial commitment in these negotiations is only $10B!

In the two negotiations tracks, little progress is being made. Report outs from all the working groups today were despairing, saying in some cases that things have gone from bad to worse. But there is so much at stake that we all hold out hope there will be some concrete and important result by the end of the day Friday…….the clock is ticking and just about everything is taking place behind closed doors. The United States delegation has now cancelled several briefings for U.S. NGOs and the youth advocates here, but U.S. youth held an emotional meeting with lead U.S. negotiators Todd Stern and Jonathan Pershing last night pleading for leadership.

Perhaps Connie Hedegaard, the Danish Minister to COP15, said it best in a plenary address to all the parties just a few minutes ago -- the fate of the world hangs in the balance, and the parties must go from taking small steps to making big steps now to correspond to the expectations outside the conference center and all over the world.