World COP15 Climate Summit 2009 Newswire Archive

Danish police have indiscriminately arrested hundreds of climate justice activists during a climate change protest made up of 100,000 people that took place today in Copenhagen. Questions have been raised about the fact that the arrests occurred in a different time and place to where some trouble had momentarily flared earlier in the day. Journalists have been restricted from reporting at the site of the arrests since 1800hrs.

Around 700 - 900 people were arrested on a mass climate demo this afternoon in Copenhagen

With the world watching, well, those who give a toss, anyway, it's all going down in Copenhagen at the mo.....Exxon were sure to send their "man on the ground"...........here's an article i fished off the net about how the oil barons are making themselves heard......

Ed Miliband MP should have been sent packing in style yesterday, at a public rally jointly hosted by DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) and Friends of the Earth in Manchester’s conference centre. Instead, the minister, flanked by his NGO followers, was welcomed by the vast majority of climate campaigners in the audience, on the eve of his departure to Copenhagen.

Indymedia has set up a space in Solidaritetshuset on Griffensegald 41, right next to lots of busy and happening venues. So, when you get into Copenhagen, be sure to look us up. Don't forget that een if you can't come to see us, then be sure to post to  http://www.indymedia.dk

There are plans to build a deadly pathogen lab alongside St Pancras International on a Camden Council house estate [Somers Town]. The consortium unveiled the design plans this week as revealed by the Evening Standard where they admitted that the lab could in fact be level 4 facility if "driven by science" meaning that it could contain deadly diseases such as rabies. They have claimed that full "public community consultation will take place" and have given 24 hours of this.

Friday 11th
12pm
Climate Camp -Trafalgar Square

At 4pm on Saturday, following The Wave of 40,000 concerned individuals, Climate Camp went further and occupied Trafalgar Square successfully for the planned 48 hours. However, with the doomed Copenhagen Climate Conference only just beginning its two week corporate sponsored farce, we're now not going anywhere.

COP OUT CAMP OUT ongoing until 18th December!

Last night - 5th Dec - after the Wave, Climate Camp swooped on Traflager SQ. Two tripods, a kitchen space, pedal-powered cinema and partying, and today, banner-making, workshops on the route causes of climate change, direct action planning and climate carol singing. Street dancing workshops, and a Guided Tour of surrounding Climate Criminals is to follow. Get on Down - bring a tent, your mates, and your workshops and direct action ideas! Copenhagen Cop15 - cop out! Camp out! Hoping to stay till the end of the conference...

Press Release from Camp for Climate Action UK

This December (ten years since the alter-globalisation movements took to the streets of Seattle to oppose the world trade organization) activists from across the globe will be descending on Copenhagen to protest the COP15 round of discussion. Has the UK Direct Action movement changed in the interceding years between these cycles of struggle? And what lessons, if any, can it learn from its recent past?

Today, on November 30, one week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Seattle in 1999, major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience are taking actions place in cities around the North America.

Up to 4-5000 people today marched in Geneva protesting ahead of the WTO meeting in an International Demonstration (see  http://www.anti-omc2009.org/?lang=en) as part of a week of action and debate around the WTO Ministerial which runs from 30th November to 2nd December(see  http://www.anti-omc2009.org/spip.php?article14).

The mobilisation is seen very much in relation to the COP15 UN climate conference taking place in Copenhagen 7th - 18th December (see  http://www.anti-omc2009.org/spip.php?article8).

This afternoon clashes broke out as parts of the crowd attacked property smashing windows of banks and shops and setting a number of cars on fire. Police used tear gas, concussion greandes and water cannon. Further protests are scheduled with the WTO meeting starting on Monday 30th November, ten years exactly since the famous Seattle WTO protests.

Just before the start of the historic UN climate talks open in Copenhagen, UK civil society will come together and encircle the Houses of Parliament to demand that the UK and Europe do much, much more than they have pledged so far in order to seal a fair and effective climate agreement. The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition brings together over 100 member organisations who in turn have members amassing to around 11 million people – one in six of the population. We speak to SCC director, Ashok Sinha, about what they have planned for the day and about their policy platform.

Believe it or not that's the latest message being conveyed by the Danish media this morning.

The Copenhagen Post reports that Mogens Lauridsen, deputy chief superintendent of Copenhagen Police, has made a statement on advice for protestors published on the Internet.

The advice for protestors includes an explanation of laws which the police may use against them as well as their legal rights under Danish law. Such legal guides are often published ahead of protests to inform demonstrators of the risks they may face and advice about how police may act towards them - during protests and if they are arrested. They are of particular relevance where protestors are coming from other countries where laws and police procedures differ.

The Danish police force, like all police forces, does not have an unblemished record when it comes to the treatment of protestors.

Recently a letter signed by members of several British NGOs including Friends of the Earth, Jubilee Debt Campaign and Christian Aid was sent to the Danish embassy (and published in the Guardian) highlighting concerns over the curtailing of legitimate protest around the Copenhagen climate summit after new repressive public order legislation was proposed. The legislation proposed includes an extension of pre-emptive detention from 6hours to 12 hours.

National differences in public order laws also led a mainstream NGO coalition to ask for clarification over whether its members wearing panda costumes would be arrested on the streets of Copenhagen, since in Denmark the wearing of masks (or even the assumed intention to wear a mask) can be an arrestable offence.

The people from around the world planning to protest at the Cop15 climate summit deserve to know how the police may treat them, and no civilised society should object to such information being published.

Download  http://www.dhf.uu.se/pdffiler/cc7/cc7_web.pdf
Carbon Trade Watch, Transnational Institute
 http://carbontradewatch.org/

Carbon trading lies at the centre of global climate policy and is projected to become one of the world’s largest commodities markets, yet it has a disastrous track record since its adoption as part of the Kyoto Protocol.

"Carbon Trading: how it works and why it fails" outlines the limitations of an approach to tackling climate change which redefines the problem to fit the assumptions of neoliberal economics. It demonstrates that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the world’s largest carbon market, has consistently failed to ´cap´ emissions, while the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) routinely favoursenvironmentally ineffective and socially unjust projects. This isillustrated with case studies of CDM projects in Brazil, Indonesia, India and Thailand.

Before the UN conference in December in Copenhagen, the Danish government wants to tighten the right to demonstrate - even against peaceful protesters.

From WTO to Cop15: 60 activists from the global South will travel across Europe through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Denmark. They will draw attention to the consequences neoliberal globalization and climate change have on their lives and show how to fight against them. Together with local activists, they look for alternatives to free trade and the privatisation of resources, and unite the North and South in their fights for another world.

The 23 page caravan reader introduces some of the caravan groups, their struggles and positions on the above issues:
 http://www.biopiraterie.de/fileadmin/pdf/Caravan_bulletin_09.pdf

On 16th December activists will attempt to take over the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen for a day and set the agenda. We speak to one of organisers of the various mass actions that are planned for the talks.