The UN Climate Change Conference has kicked off in Copenhagen, and Baker & McKenzie and Deacons have teams on the ground to covering the action.

From Deacons, the head of the national climate change practice Elisa De Wit is joining a team of eight climate change lawyers from Norton Rose observing the event. The group will be reporting on the conference's happening from its specialised Twitter page.

Likewise, Freehills solicitor and climate change specialist Renee Garner will be in the thick of the action, providing daily updates on discussions through her blog. Garner co-wrote Australia's first text book on climate change last year, and she is attending the conference as part of a delegation with the Clean Energy Council of Australia.

Meanwhile, a team of six lawyers from Baker & McKenzie will be in attendance, including Sydney partner Paul Curnow and senior associate Ilona Miller. While giving Twitter a miss, the team will be speaking at International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) side events on topics such as domestic emissions trading schemes, new flexible mechanisms and developments in the land use, land use change and forestry sectors. Curnow, in his role as chair of the Carbon Markets & Investors Association (CMIA) Australian Working Group will act as a government liaison for CMIA.

The team will also be providing legal support to international non-governmental organisations and least-developed countries on a pro bono basis, working with World Wide Fund for Nature and Oxfam and also assisting domestic conservation groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation in relation to country-specific positions in the negotiations.

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Bakers is also sponsoring the Copenhagen Prediction Market - a project aiming to predict outcomes of the conference (see full story).