Thursday 17 December 2009

Report From Copenhagen

Guest Post from Reading activist Miriam Kennet


The summit is exploding in lots of ways with a resignation of its president yesterday!

No NGOs are allowed in today, except those in with one small organisation RINGO who got all the tickets themselves. I spoke to UN officials who couldnt get in

Oxford University, The World Bank etc couldnt get in. Even the negotiator for Brazil and for India were barred from getting in, and an appeal went from the conference floor in plenary in the middle of the day to let them in allowed them acess!

I was interviewed on the BBC world service news and the journalist interviewing me said he had to wait 8 hours in the snow to get in. The Chief Negotaitor for the Indian Government was so upset with how he was manhandled at the outset at the entry barriers that he said he couldnt think straight and put Indians representations to the conference for about 20 minutes whilst he got his composure back!

Brazil and India are not minor players in this .. arguably Brazils rainforest holds the key to our human survival.....


The RINGO passes - ie research institutes including oxford university etc and think tanks were all given to an organisation called RINGO and only 8 passes have been given today to anyone else .. the rest went to RINGOs friends and supporters -so Oxford University has gone home.

The World Futures council couldnt get in and neither could we today .. even though we have been registered for 5 months on time and the conference is advertising our participation on its own website!

I also heard Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace cant go in.
But most telling of all -
The people from the UNs own think tank representing the states of the Middle East governments - couldnt not get in without a struggle !

The president resigned and the Danish Prime Minister personally took over in plenary yesterday - and was visibly nervous and allowed china to voice its concerns and this delayed the conference for hours.

Many of the smaller island states whose very survival depends on this conferences outcome were really worried and have put forward an alternative add on for limitation to 1.5 degrees but this was not really being discussed....

If this is really how we are going to deal with a megacrisis of climate - a police state where even the police dont seem to agree with what they are being asked to do - who is pulling these strings

The UNFCC secretariat is absolutely and totally out of its depth here ....and the whole organisation needs taking out of its hands and being run properly.. not even its own members seemed to have any grasp of what was going on and many of them couldnt get in either....

The biggest complaint by the delegations, is that the final deal is not being negotiated on the conference floor at all but somewhere else... entirely and will be imposed tomorrow when the bigger state presidents arrive and in a flourish off the deal = a deal already sealed .......

Everyone wants a deal - however its important that this deal comes from a quorate summit.....and that is going to stop climate change - not to simply provide for countries, large and small, developed and developing just to use it to pollute more and to simply to use it pay off their balances of trade ...!





Miriam Kennet
Copenhagen


Also see Naomi Klein on activism's impact on the climate negotiations.

Click here to sign the petition for a real deal -- the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters -- over the next 48 hours let's make it the largest petition in history! The name of every signer is being read out right now in the summit hall.

email Obama and the US ambassador in London now with38 degrees

“The time is past for big capital to make more money,” said Vandama Shiva, a former physicist who quit India’s nuclear program and become a leading voice for the environment. “The earth must make the change. The earth must make the rules. “We will be the change we want to see, and no one is going to stop us.”

And the Age Of Stupid youtube updates here

3 comments:

Adrian Windisch said...

Speaking from Copenhagen, Monica Frassoni, the Co-Spokesperson of the European Green Party, has condemned in the strongest possible terms the exclusion of key environmental and other NGOs, including Friends of the Earth, from the venue of the ongoing climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

It is simply unacceptable that just as the negotiations are about to enter their crucial last few days, the very organisations which have done so much to raise awareness of the urgent need for a strong, legally binding and just climate change agreement are being denied access to the COP15 venue.

We were particularly shocked to hear that Friends of the Earth delegates were excluded, including their International Chair, Nnimmo Bassey, despite having both the accreditation and the secondary pass required. We also know that many thousands of people from other organisations, including Green Party representatives and delegates of the Green European Institute, have been queuing for many hours on successive days without gaining entry. This can only add to suspicions that the UN is trying to close down criticism of the talks and world leaders, most of whom will participate as of tomorrow. This is not only very bad news for all those who fight for climate
justice but can only increase tensions and the likelihood of disturbances outside and inside the venue.

Notes for Editors : Interviews with Monica Frassoni can be arranged by contacting the EGP Press Officer, Graham Burgess, on mobile number +32 477 902 023

Anonymous said...

On Copenhagen ... thought you'd be interested in Abjol Miah, Respect's PPC for Bethnal Green and Bow, on getting a just deal on climate change for the global South

http://bit.ly/4RA60N

Adrian Windisch said...

Thanks but Id rather read http://towerhamlets.greenparty.org.uk/ Im not that big a fan of George Galloway, though he has had some good moments.

Windcatcher, how nice for them to grow up with the 'compliments of Freedom'. Are other counties less free? And why havent USA/Canada investigated the garbage dump? According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch it has been investigated by the Scripps institute.