Occupying COP17 - a video report

Kirsty Wright, climate campaigner, writes from the UN climate talks in Durban

At 3pm today, on the final day of the UN climate talks, I joined hundreds of people to occupy the conference centre where the final plenary talks were taking place.

Here are some videos telling the story of what happened.

People sang together as they moved towards the entrance of the plenary:

People made their demands over the human microphone:

Tom, from Ecologistas en Accion, made a speech highlighting the environmental apartheid that is taking place:

A participant from Nigeria made a plea that negotiators stand with the people, not the 'dirty polluters':

A participant from Egypt, who said he came with hope, says that as in Egypt the people are angry and must be listened to:

Bongani, from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, who joined WDM for our speaker tour last October, keeps up the energy by leading the singing:

As someone makes a suggestion on how others should leave peacefully and hand over their badges to the security, Bongani makes it clear that Occupy is an autonomous space, where people make their own decisions on what action they will take:

Occupy COP17 ended with people being physically removed from the building and having their accreditation to the talks taken away. The threats from security that people would face arrest when they left the building turned out to be untrue. People moved to take a space outside the conference centre, where an all night vigil will take place.

Meanwhile, hours before the end of the talks, the lastest draft text is so appalling that many think that it's part of an unsophisticated negotiating game, an attempt to trick negotiators into accepting a deal with any improvements, however minor. The talks now look likely to go on well into the night, leaving developing country negotiators outraged.