Copenhagen climate conference

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

Last night I had my first decent sleep since Sunday. Having been stuck in the Bella Centre for most of the week, yesterday was the first time I had been out in daylight since last Monday.

I am one of the lucky ones; when final negotiations were happening on Saturday morning, Ed Miliband probably hadn't slept since Wednesday night.

It was into this tiredness that President Obama cast his judgement on the fate of millions of people. Late on Friday, he announced to the world's media that a consensus deal had been struck. With reports of a 'meaningful' deal on the front pages of a major news website, the propoganda war had begun.

But it soon became apparent that the President had lied to the world. The 'deal' was between just four countries . The EU couldn't decide what it thought. Most developing countries were in complete confusion about what was happening.

I joined queues of people at photocopiers in the Bella Centre trying to get their hands on 'the deal'. I thought I was out of the loop, until I saw many country negotiators behind me trying to find out what had been agreed in their name.

Last week we...

A catalogue of bribery and bullying tactics are being used against developing countries in an attempt to force through a deal at all costs at the Copenhagen talks campaigners revealed today.

UK based, anti-poverty campaigners, the World Development movement said that developing countries are being bribed in numerous ways, including by threatening that international aid and finance for adapting to the impacts of climate change would only be delivered if countries cooperated with developed countries' demands.

The campaigners are arguing that there is no hope for a deal with justice at its heart, and so no deal would be better than forcing through a bad deal.

The campaigners have compared the kinds of tactics used by developed countries to those that take place in World Trade Organisation negotiations, which are widely viewed as notoriously undemocratic, unaccountable and immoral. And they say that the UN talks have been 'darkened by blatant bullying by rich countries saving face, but not the climate.'

Tim Jones, climate policy officer at the World Development movement said:
"It's absolutely scandalous that developing countries are being told that international aid and finance to cope with the impacts of climate change is dependent on cooperation...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

A thick covering of snow has arrived in Copenhagen. The white powder helps to lift excitement from the dire situation in the negotiations.

Only 300 observers are now allowed into the convention centre, but early this morning I squeezed in as part of the Climate Justice Now contingent. However, there has been precious little to observe. Official negotiations have resumed, but are mainly behind closed doors. And the more important discussions are happening even further out of sight.

Ed Miliband was reported as calling for more substance to the negotiations or the Copenhagen outcome would be a “farce”. This was followed by Gordon Brown making his set-piece speech. Lots of lists of three and contrasting pairs made it a rhetorical tour de force. But the complete lack of substance certainly fulfilled Ed’s prophesy of farce.

Some of my colleagues on the inside are experienced campaigners from world trade negotiations. They say the talks in Copenhagen now share all the aggression, bullying and bribery rich countries have exercised for years at the WTO. One even commented that this is worse than the WTO. So...

World Development Movement response to Prime Minister speech

Commenting on the speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at COP15, World Development Movement Policy Officer Tim Jones said:

“Gordon Brown was strong on rhetoric but weak on substance. The Prime Minister called for the strongest level of ambition, yet did not increase the UK’s current feeble target for reducing its own emissions. A call for money was made, but the Prime Minister failed to say the UK is giving just £500 million a year, much of which was first announced in 2007. Almost all of this is loans, further increasing the unjust debts of developing countries.

“Talks in Copenhagen are stalled because rich countries are failing to make serious commitments to reduce emissions. Offers of money are small amounts to try and secure an unjust deal, rather than the real reparations needed for countries affected by climate change. The Prime Minister failed to play his part in unblocking these talks.”

ENDS

Tim Jones is inside the Bella Centre and can be contacted on +44 7817 6281962

In Copenhagen on Wednesday thousands of protestors marched to the Bella Centre where the climate change negotiations are taking place. At the same time, hundreds of delegates walked out to meet them to create a 'People's Assembly' to discuss positive solutions to climate change. The protestors were met with violence from the Danish police.

World Development Movement policy officer Tim Jones commented from within the Bella Centre:

“Today thousands of people sought to create a people’s assembly to get voices heard offering real solutions to the climate crisis. The people’s assembly was stopped by police who committed unprovoked violence on both protestors and official delegates to the UN negotiations. This is a moment in history where the right to protest is of vital importance. The threat that we are facing from climate change is overwhelming.”
 
At the same time as the protests, the Danish government was seeking to push an unjust and ineffective agreement on developing countries, outside of the transparent process. The reintroduction of a so-called ‘Danish text’ would override all the official negotiations, kill the Kyoto protocol and release rich countries from their...

David Johnstone, WDM south-west London group member, writes from Copenhagen

You can't walk far in Copenhagen without being reminded that the conference is in town. Virtually every billboard makes a claim of environmental virtue.

At Norreport Station, one of the city's main transport interchanges, advertisements for Danish wind energy company Vestas plastered all over the walls proclaim them the planet's saviours. The workers laid off when they closed their factory on the Isle of Wight earlier this year may be able to give a fuller picture.

Around every corner there's a climate-themed art work of dubious merit, a rock concert, or a film crew asking you for your 'message of hope' as a citizen of 'Hopenhagen'. As a campaigning veteran of 'Make Poverty History' and Live 8, I'm suspicious of any campaign involving rock stars and you often don't have to look far to spot a corporate logo. The message about the global injustice of climate change is not always so easy to find, though.

We received our clearest picture of what's happening at the Bella Centre, not in the newspapers or public squares of Copenhagen, but 30 km out of...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

On Monday our climate debt invoice was confiscated inside the negotiations for being ‘too political’. This seemed odd; a politics Geiger counter would explode if it were in the Danish capital. We concluded it was less a case of ‘too political’ than too ‘the wrong kind of political’.

To be more in tune with those in power, we decided to get on message on Tuesday. As negotiators moved from room to room we offered them some World Development Movement carbon cake.

Our ‘carbon cake’ could only be eaten by those who had already consumed too much; rich countries. Meanwhile delegates from developing countries were turned away.

Kirsty’s voice echoed through the halls: “Roll up roll up, get your carbon cake here. The cake for those who’ve already had too much.” Delegates from North America and Europe scoffed themselves on our high-fat, high-sugar Danish treats. When they looked embarrassed at their good fortune we reassured them: “Don’t worry about the shame, give someone else the blame.”

Those from developing countries had a look of bafflement and anger when we refused to let them share in the cake treats. Telling them “If you don’t get justice inside the talks, you don’t get it outside the...

On Monday, WDM joined climate debt campaigners from across the world to call for the rich world to repay its climate debt. People from Nepal, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina, Ecuador and Nigeria gathered outside the Bella Centre, where the UN talks are being hosted. WDM South-west London and South Lakes also joined in.

The debt must be repaid in a way that doesn’t reinforce existing inequality, or go through undemocratic organisations like the World Bank. Climate debt is not only about reparations for the damage already done, but also about massive cuts in emissions, and sharing solutions instead of creating new markets of out the atmosphere. As one person said “The World Bank have already done too much wrong to the south, how can we trust them?”

 
The energy was amazing, “Pay up pay up pay up, pay up the climate debt” the crowd chanted, louder and louder, as the snow fell around Jubilee South’s giant masks that were representing the EU and the US, surrounded by a multitude of flags...

Vicki Lesley, WDM south-west London group, writes from Copenhagen

After an enjoyably civilised rail journey – including an overnight stopover in Cologne, and the unusual experience of the train actually driving on to the ferry for the short sea crossing – we arrived safely in Copenhagen on Friday evening. Despite the chill in the air – Copenhagen in December is definitely as cold as you’d expect! - it was a great feeling to finally be here, in spitting distance of the negotiations, after all those months of vigorous campaigning and anticipation back home.

Whilst hopes of a sufficiently robust and legally-binding agreement now seem somewhat forlorn, there is still everything to play for and as a climate change campaigner, there is simply nowhere else to be this week. WDM is certainly well represented here – along with the Southwest London group, there are also members from North London, Oxford, Bexhill and the South Lakes groups, as well of course as Tim, Kirsty, Kate and Deborah from the office. I’m proud to be here with so many other like-minded campaigners, many of whom I’ve met for the first time in Copenhagen.

Saturday morning dawned...

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

Off a train. Onto a bus. Into a convention centre with thousands of people. Faces everywhere. Frowning faces, happy faces, confused faces. Lots of confused faces. 

Sitting on a green sofa I bump into Dwijen, a friend from a walk we went on a couple of years ago. Dwijen works with communities in Bangladesh already suffering from climate change.

One of the key issues in Copenhagen is ‘short-term finance’; money in the next few years to help developing countries adapt to climate change and cut emissions. For people in Bangladesh, it is vital to get more resources now to deal with the already increasingly devastating floods.

Unfortunately the UK government knows this. Climate secretary Ed Miliband and international development secretary Douglas Alexander were both in Bangladesh in September. ‘Unfortunate’ you say, ‘surely it’s a good thing UK politicians know what is happening in Bangladesh?’

The UK is using the prospect of money now to split developing countries, and force through agreements the UK likes. There’s nothing like desperate need to bring countries into line.

One objective...

We need people to act fast for real results to get a deal with justice at its heart. Already the climate talks have a distinct stench of scandal over the draft documents known as the Danish text, leaked to the Guardian and showing rich countries abandoning any principle of climate justice.

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries”. In particular, the text is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance, whilst strengthening the role of the World Bank;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes;
• Make money to help countries adapt to climate change conditional on them reducing emissions.
 

This is outrageous and cannot be allowed to happen. We need you to make a noise now.
1) Email Gordon Brown calling on him to distance...

We set off early from Lille, where we had been hosted by members of the Confederation Paysanne. We have had an incredibly warm welcome in all the places we’ve stayed, and Lille was no exception. Everyone from the caravan was put up by someone from the Confederation in their home, and we left early on Sunday morning well fed and well rested.

This was just as well, because from Lille we travelled to Brussels where we were being hosted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, an organisation campaigning against corporate lobbying and influence within EU policy. They had an action packed agenda ready for us, and we soon set of for an activist’s tour of Brussels...

Our first stop was the European Commission. The Commission is heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists who have been successful in pushing through aggressive trade agreements and flawed climate policies which favour high carbon industry, intensify the exploitation of natural resources and discriminate against developing countries. The EU’s climate policy is mainly based on carbon trading and other false solutions that benefit big business without tackling climate change.
 

We were joined there by...

The Trade to Climate Caravan

Organised by Klimaforum (www.klimaforum09.org)

From the WTO meetings in Geneva to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the Trade to Climate Caravan is taking the social and climate justice message through Europe, direct to the policy makers.

Activists from social and environmental struggles all over the world have come together to tell the politicians, the lobbyists and the multinationals that we demand system change, not climate change. The caravan has brought together campaigers and activists from throughout the global south; people who are suffering directly as a result of unjust and exploitative trade agreements, environmental devastation including destructive 'environmental' mega projects, and the socially reprehensible behaviour of governments as they resort to violence to evict people from their lands and pave the way or multinational corporations and agribusiness.

So, from Colombia to the Congo, the Phillippines to Mexico, Belarus to South Korea, and India to Peru, southern activists have come together in the run up to the UN Climate Summit to demand that the politicians and corporations stop polluting the poor for profit. This blog is devoted to sharing the messages and stories of those on the caravan as I...