Preparing for a warm winter in Copenhagen: A guide to the COP15 protests

This Decem­ber the Unit­ed Nations Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence or COP15 will take place in Copen­hagen, Den­mark. Those organ­is­ing the con­fer­ence claim it aims to be a step towards the build­ing of a ‘new glob­al cli­mate treaty’ in an attempt to tack­le cli­mate change.

But many feel that this meet­ing is a sham, cre­at­ed to prop up exist­ing sys­tems that pro­mote, not hin­der cli­mate change. Pro­pa­gan­da to back this up is already pour­ing out of the COP15 web­site which in a recent­ly pub­lished arti­cle dubbed Britain, France, Ger­many, Greece and Swe­den as ‘cli­mate heroes’.

Many groups and indi­vid­u­als have spent the last year and a half organ­is­ing against COP15. This will cul­mi­nate in sev­er­al days of protest dur­ing the con­fer­ence. The protests, organ­ised by a wide net­work under a loose ban­ner of ‘Cli­mate Jus­tice Action’ focus on many cli­mate relat­ed issues includ­ing pro­duc­tion, anti-cor­po­rate action and indus­tri­al agri­cul­ture.

Copen­hagen has seen sev­er­al mass protests in recent years, notably in 2008 after author­i­ties evict­ed the Ung­domshuset squat­ted social cen­tre. Read more at http://www.lasthours.org.uk/news/riots-in-copenhagen/
Who’s who?

What is COP15?

COP15 is the name giv­en to the Unit­ed Nations Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence tak­ing place between the 7th and 18th of Decem­ber in the city of Copen­hagen, Den­mark. Offi­cials from almost 200 coun­tries are expect­ed to attend as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives from oth­er organ­i­sa­tions and NGOs. The aim is to estab­lish a ‘glob­al cli­mate agree­ment for the peri­od from 2012′. The con­fer­ence is spon­sored by cor­po­ra­tions such as BMW, Hon­da and Vol­vo.

Who are Cli­mate Jus­tice Action?

Cli­mate Jus­tice Action (CJA) is a broad net­work peo­ple and groups mobi­liz­ing to take action against Cli­mate Change. The group includes NGOs and char­i­ta­ble organ­i­sa­tions as well as more grass­roots groups. All are oper­at­ing under a unit­ed set of net­work goals and prin­ci­ples. For more infor­ma­tion on CJA or to read the net­work prin­ci­ples vis­it http://www.climate-justice-action.org/about/about-cja/

Nev­er Trust A COP

More explic­it­ly anti-cap­i­tal­ist organ­is­ing is also tak­ing place. A net­work titled Nev­er Trust A COP was formed in April 2009. The net­work includes peo­ple from the rad­i­cal left, anar­chists and ‘groups based on con­sen­sus deci­sion mak­ing’. The net­work have called for an anti-cap­i­tal­ist block on Decem­ber 12th’s mass demon­stra­tion as well as par­tic­i­pa­tion in the action on Decem­ber 13th (see below). A longer text from NTAC which out­lines the need for anti-cap­i­tal­ist action can be read here.

What’s hap­pen­ing?

[ edit­ed — see Last Hours link below for more details of events hap­pen­ing through­out, BUT please note that the fullest and most cor­rect dates/links dur­ing the cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions are at http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/22201 ]

Both Cli­mate Jus­tice Action and Nev­er Trust A COP offer logis­ti­cal infor­ma­tion from their web­sites. The UK based group Camp for Cli­mate Action have organ­ised coach­es to Copen­hagen for the protests. You can find more infor­ma­tion on this at http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009/coaches

Read at http://www.lasthours.org.uk/articles/preparing-for-a-warm-winter-in-copenhagen-a-guide-to-the-cop15-protests/ for links and pic­tures.