Copenhagen: The sound of silence

Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.

Copenhagen: the sound of silence

Denmark's reputation is being destroyed by police action outside the summit and the gagging of NGOs and poor nations inside
Nick Dearden and Tim Jones

The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.

Read the full article on the Guardian's Comment is Free

Letter: Protest curtailed in Copenhagen

Last month, we wrote to express our concern that the Danish government was seeking to curtail legitimate protest at the most important international climate talks in history (Letters, 4 November). The Danish government responded that "the new [police powers] will in no way affect peaceful demonstrators" (Letters, 23 November).

Recent events on the streets of Copenhagen show we were right to be worried (Copenhagen talks stall, 15 December). We are deeply distressed by the sight of 1,000 activists being held in freezing temperatures, without basic rights, for many hours; by reports of protesters being sprayed with pepper spray while being held in cages; by raids on meetings and sleeping quarters; by the arrest of a civil-society organiser on the eve of yesterday's demonstration; and by many more stories of serious infringements of the civil liberties of peaceful protestors.

The vast majority of those arrested were demonstrating peacefully, simply calling on rich country representatives, who seem oblivious to the importance of this summit, to recognise the urgent need to reduce their use of fossil fuels. This cannot be separated from the treatment which developing countries have received inside the conference, where they have been ignored and marginalised.

For those who want this conference to be negotiated between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in hotel rooms, no doubt the intervention of ordinary people is a serious annoyance. But intimidation of civil society organisations will not lead to a just and effective climate change treaty. The lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the world are at stake, and they have a right to be heard.

Nick Dearden Jubilee Debt Campaign, Deborah Doane World Development Movement, Kevin Smith Platform, Ian Leggett People & Planet, Andy Atkins Friends of the Earth

Original on the Guardian website