71 arrested in Copenhagen resisting the World Business Summit on Climate Change

24th May 2009
Pro­test­ers clashed with police in Copen­hagen today while attempt­ing to dis­rupt the World Busi­ness Sum­mit on Cli­mate Change, a gath­er­ing of the worlds largest cor­po­ra­tions and, not coin­ci­den­tal­ly, biggest pol­luters. Orga­nized by the Dan­ish gov­ern­ment, the Busi­ness Sum­mit gave cor­po­rate inter­ests unprece­dent­ed access to the ongo­ing UN cli­mate talks, includ­ing face time with UN Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ban Ki-moon and so called cli­mate “hero” Al Gore.

The group of pro­tes­tors, lead by a ban­ner read­ing “Our Cli­mate is not Your Busi­ness” attempt­ed to breach police lines in order to dis­rupt the meet­ing. The live­ly group of activists want­ed high­t­light the dam­ag­ing and dis­rup­tive role that cor­po­ra­tions play in the inter­na­tion­al cli­mate talks. The list of cor­po­ra­tions attend­ing includ­ed #1 car­bon emit­ter in the world Shell Oil, Duke Ener­gy (#12 at last count), and BP among oth­er cli­mate crim­i­nals.

“The Dan­ish gov­ern­ment appears to be under the impres­sion that some of the world’s most pol­lut­ing com­pa­nies are going to put for­ward tough mea­sures to tack­le cli­mate change,” said Ken­neth Haar, a researcher with Cor­po­rate Europe Obser­va­to­ry. “But unfor­tu­nate­ly this doesn’t seem like­ly to be the case. The major­i­ty of the cor­po­ra­tions attend­ing the World Busi­ness Sum­mit on Cli­mate Change seem more intent on pur­su­ing busi­ness as usu­al – with the promise that future tech­nolo­gies will resolve the prob­lem at a lat­er date.

“Cor­po­rate lob­by­ists have been try­ing to influ­ence the UN cli­mate talks from the start. But now they are being invit­ed to set the agen­da before the nego­tia­tors have even sat down. If their demands are lis­tened to, we might as well give up the fight against cli­mate change now.”

The WBSCC draws into ques­tion the legit­i­ma­cy of the UN cli­mate talks. How can we trust a process that opens the door to the very cor­po­ra­tions that cre­at­ed the cli­mate cri­sis, while shut­ting out the worlds poor, indige­nous, and land based

peo­ples who are least respon­si­ble for cli­mate change, yet will bare the brunt of its impacts?

To get involved with the resis­tance to cor­po­rate con­trol over the talks check out:

www.klimakollektiv.dk