Climate summit closed to civil society, but remains open to big business

Yesterday hundreds of activists were beaten and arrested in the streets of Copenhagen and Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth and other NGOs were banned from the Bella Center, where the UN negotiations take place. But this morning, representatives of big business were inside the Bella Center having a high-level breakfast with 10 ministers, an event jointly organised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UNFCCC. The WBCSD has 230 accredited delegates in Copenhagen.

The WBCSD’s President Björn Stigson hosted today’s breakfast with summit chair Yvo de Boer. Stigson’s message, according to the WBCSD, was a ‘simple one’: “You (governments) will not tackle climate change without business at the table as an engaged, involved partner. Governments cannot deliver the targets which are being talked about without business.”

Later in the morning the WBCSD co-organised another event in the Bella Center to discuss “Private Sector and the UNFCC: Options for Institutional Engagement”. The event title is more than wishful thinking. Only a few weeks ago the EU awarded a contract to the WBCSD and consultancies Ecofys and Climate Focus to do a study that should “define options for formal engagement of the private sector within the UNFCCC process”.

The EU has also been promoting this initiative during the summit. On 12 December, an event on Private Sector Engagement in the International Climate Change Policy Process took place in the EU pavilion in the Bella Center, co-organised by the Commission, DG Enterprise and the three groups contracted to do the study.

The WBCSD’s privileged access today to the Bella Center and to high-level decision-makers and the fact that the EU is funding the WBCSD to make proposals for involving business even closer in international climate talks is outrageous and unacceptable. Since its foundation in 1992, the WBCSD has only been advocating industry self-regulation, a global carbon market and false solutions like nuclear energy, agrofuels, coal (CCS) and carbon credits from plantation forests.

The EU’s and the UN’s preferential treatment of the WBCSD are deeply flawed. Effective and just climate policies are only possible if governments keep a healthy distance from companies that have a direct economic interest in the decisions taken.

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NGOs excluded but developing nations stand up to rich countries

The voice of civil society may have been effectively kept out of the UN climate talks today - with NGOs refused entry following this morning’s walkout protest, but heads of states from developing nations have been outspoken on the failure so far to commit to adequate emission cuts.

Speeches were delayed this morning after China and other countries objected to another new text which had reportedly been produced by the Danish hosts of the talk - rather than being discussed by all negotiators. Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who is now presiding over the talks following the resignation of COP President Connie Hedgegaard this morning, denied the existence of a new text and called on negotiators to stop focusing on the process.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, H.E, Meles Zenawi, speaking on behalf of the African nations, said that Africa was already “paying with the misery and death of its people for the wealth and wellbeing that was created in the developed countries through carbon intensive development.” He urged nations to support a $10 billion start-up fund to fund urgent adaptation and mitigation - scaling down the demand of some African countries, but seeking more funding than is currently on the table.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the ghost of capitalism was stalking the talks. The rich were destroying the planet - with 7% of the global population responsible for 50% of global pollution.

If the climate was a bank, he added, the Americans would have saved it.

The President of the Seychelles, James Michel, said the offers on the table were “a rich man’s deal” which would only reinforce existing inequalities.

EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso said he believed an ambitious deal could be achieved, with a binding agreement in the next year. And he reiterated the EU’s commitment to 20% cuts by 2020, increasing to 30% if the US and China made similar commitments.

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Protesters beaten up, NGOs excluded

Avaaz, Friends of the Earth International, Via Campesina and maybe others were banned from the COP15 conference this morning. The excuse was actions they had held inside the conference centre. These non-violent actions are quite common during climate conferences and had been allowed in Copenhagen since the first day of the conference. Today's decision took everyone by surprise.

Later on, civil society delegates walked out of the conference to join the 'People's Assembly' that was scheduled to take place outside the conference centre. We were stopped on a bridge by the police and were prevented from joining the Assembly. The police first said that there was violence and arrests on the other side of the fence and they would let us go once this was over .

Soon we figured out there was nothing going on the other side of the fence at this moment - we could see there were only peaceful demonstrators watching us. With a hand vote we decided to peacefully push forward with our hands in the air. The police used truncheons immediately. We chanted 'we are peaceful what you are?'. After some time of pushing the police forced us to leave beating us with truncheons . Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.

Police used pepper spray and arrested some hundreds of protesters marching to the conference
despite the fact that their protest was entirely peaceful. They also confiscated the truck in which the People's Assembly was supposed to take place and this happened out in the cold.

After the walk out event we were informed by the police that all NGOs (environmental, research, business etc.) have been excluded for the rest of the day at least and maybe also tomorrow .

The UNFCCC secreteriat had previously shared the limited NGO positions for the plenary in an untransparent way. Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) were given 25% of passes, around 23% to 'Business NGOs' BINGOs, 20% to Research institutions (RINGOs). There is no official categorisation of which delegations belong to which of the above categories, so it is completely
opaque on what basis this share was made.

It would be interesting to see whether the common 'high-level breakfast' of UNFCCC with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development will take place tomorrow.

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Walk out at the UN climate talks

Delegates staged a mass walk out from the UN climate talks in Copenhagen this morning, chanting "Reclaim the power".

Some 200 or more people left the building in protest at the way in which governments are excluding the voices of people from the talks. Meanwhile outside, some of those excluded, marched on the conference centre where they were held by police.


The delegates who walked out were held by police on a bridge outside Copenhagen's Bella Center.

Earlier, delegates from Friends of the Earth - all accredited and in possession of the secondary badges now needed by NGOs - were told they were not allowed inside.

While the rich country governments try to push their agenda on to developing nations inside the talks, calls for climate justice are being kept out.

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Arrests in Copenhagen a serious threat to democracy

On Tuesday, December 15, several hundreds of activists attended the event at the civil society conference (KlimaForum) in Copenhagen where Monsanto was hailed as the worst anti-climate lobby involved in the UN talks.



While this ceremony was taking place in the underground floor, the police invaded the ground floor of the KlimaForum and arrested several people. Police and military have several times entered the KlimaForum venue during the last days. Meanwhile one of the of the organisers of the peaceful civil disobedience march planned for today (December 16) was arrested straight after a press conference in the Bella Center,the venue of the climate summit.

Police raids have been reported all over the city against organisers of tomorrow's demonstration. What the justification is for arresting the organisers of a peaceful demonstration remains entirely unclear.

After the large number of mass arrests of the last days, not least the almost 1,000 people detained during the big demonstration on Saturday, it's becoming clear that the Danish police is working systematically to hinder demonstrations - completely ignoring the basic right to assembly.

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Restricted and unequal access to climate negotiations

Thousands of participants and observers of the UN climate summit had to wait long hours in the cold before being able to enter the Bella Center, both yesterday and today. Hundreds of people never managed to get in.

This organisational mismanagement that caused the long queues of the last days occured despite the decision by the UNFCCC secreteriat according to which the access of non-governmental groups (NGOs, industry, scientists) has been restricted by 80% since Tuesday.

The access to the summit's plenary room will be futrher limited to 300 non-governmental observers on Thurday and only 90 on Friday, the final day of the summit. The UNFCCC secreteriat has been unclear about how these 300 and 90 privliged participants will be chosen.

The staff at the helpdesks do not have any information on this question and the secreteriat is slow in responding by email.

This mess affects mostly the access of civil society to the summit and to information about the talks. Corporate lobbyists have easy access to the highest level since they are often part of national delegations (as it's the case with agrofuel lobby UNICA in the Brazilian delegation). Business lobbyist have rented tens of prestigeous venues across Copenhagen to hold their exclusive events (for instance, the Crown Plaza Hotel that is used by carbon trade lobby IETA). They can meet government negotiators there or in five star hotels where both negotiators and industry lobbyists stay. Despite of the intense negotiations going on, high-level government officials take the time to participate in events organised by big busines for instance BusinessEurope event yesterday.

In the ZEP event Shell lobbyist Sweeney casually referred a meeting he had had earlier that day with some major representative of the US government.

This kind of unequal access can only result in a very unbalanced outcome of the climate talks.

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BusinessEurope gets praise from EU governments, despite irresponsible lobbying

At a high-profile event into the Bella Center of Copenhagen yesterday, European industrialists repeated their demand that the EU should not go beyond a 20% CO2 reduction target. Lobby giant BusinessEurope has throughout the Copenhagen climate summit very vocally warned the EU against a 30% reduction, insisting the EU should wait for the outcome of the Copenhagen negotiations and what the US will do. Environment and development NGOs have criticised BusinessEurope's lobbying and accused it of “undermining the aims on the conference”. Oxfam UK called on British business lobby CBI “to publicly disassociate itself from Business Europe”.

The controversy around BusinessEurope's lobbying had not scared off heavy-weight political attendance to the event yesterday. BusinessEurope lobbyists Phillippe de Buck and Nick Campbell (introduced by de Buck as ‘the man that knows it all from a business perspective’) were joined on the panel by from BusinessEurope, Jos Debelke of the European Commission (and a leading EU negotiator) and the Vice Prime Minister of Sweden, Maude Olofsson.

Delbeke nor Olofsson distanced themselves the slightest from BusinessEurope, even when De Buck presented his lowest common nominator position and argued that we should all be proud of ”what European industry achieved since Kyoto, especially in comparison with other regions”.

Mrs Olofsson said the Swedish EU Presidency has been ”trying hard to work with the business sector because you are crucial and because we share the same vision about what we want for the future”.

Jos Delbeke said the Commission still strongly believes in market based approaches to reduce CO2 emissions, despite their failure up to now, because the alternatives to those would be either detailed regulation or taxation. These solutions are apparently simply discarded because big corporations dislike them and because these approaches don’t fit to the neoliberal dogmas the Commission seems to stubbornly adhere to.

Delbeke also said that ‘a political and not yet a legal agreement’ should be expected in Copenhagen

The event left me with uncomfortable feeling that BusinessEurope can get away with anything and still enjoy the backing of the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency. The voice of civil society, meanwhile, seems largely ignored.

Yesterday the Declaration of the KlimaForum of Copenhagen was launched, based on ellaborate democratic discussions between civil society representatives from around the world. It is hard to imagine European leaders embracing this vision of abandoning fossil fuels, recognising the climate debt, advancing democratic ownership and control of economy and so on. EU governments, unfortunately, seem to have firmly aligned themselves with the corporate vision of nuclear renaissance, illegitimate patent protection, anemic CO2 reduction goals, special regimes for the most polluting industries, the commodification of the atmosphere through carbon trading etc.

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Old polluting companies push like crazy for CCS

An undated letter is circulating in the corridors of the Copenhagen climate conference, sent by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) to the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board.

IETA's membership includes many of the fossil fuel energy giants which have played such a disastrous role in the global high-carbon addiction economy of the last 50 years..

In the letter IETA complains about the Board's decision in September last year not to examine a proposal for a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in Africa. The UN climate talks have not yet officially recognised CCS as part of the solution to climate change. Given how controversial CCS technology is, the decision of the CDM board makes complete sense. Nevertheless, IETA is pushing for CCS projects to be examined now on the basis of recommendations from some UN sub-bodies. This pressure comes in addition to industry's main lobbying goal: recognition of CCS in the Copenhagen deal.

At an event hosted by the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) in Copenhagen yesterday it became clear that the next five days are crucial in this regard. I asked the ZEP lobbyists two questions during the event and got revealing responses. Firstly, does it make sense that funding CCS moves faster than subsidies for renewable energy in the EU, when it is clear that CCS cannot contribute to the 2020 reduction goals?

ZEP's chairman, Shell executive Graeme Sweeney, responded that ZEP wants ”money to go the most appropriate projects” regardless of the technology used. In practice this means that CCS will get most of the funding since the European Commission admits a preference to large scale coal projects rather than small scale renewables, referring to administrative and other reasons. In practice, CCS has already won half of the funds in the EU's New Entrants Reserve (NER) and they are lobbying for more, leaving renewables struggling for funds.

My second question was if it is legitimate for the fossil fuel companies to be in Copenhagen lobbying with European tax payers money? For details on this, see CEO's new report on ZEP.

Sweeney replied that ZEP is a 'unique coalition of industry, governments, scientists and NGOs' and therefore it is appropriate for them to be here with public money.

Sweeney got assistance from ,Frederic Hauge, President of the Norway-based NGO Bellona, a tireless promoter of CCS. According to Hauge, CCS is necessary to combat climate change, therefore “we have the moral obligation to use all the resources availlable to make this option known”.

Bellona's European Director Paal Frisvold approached me to appease my concerns on this point. I told him that ZEP had moved far beyond its initial mission to advise on research policies and had become a fully-fledged lobbying campaign, so therefore the Commission should stop funding it. The response was that I should't be so dogmatic and that we're talking... only about 1 million euros after all

At the ZEP event, IPCC chairman R. K. Pachauri agreed that renewable energy is clearly more reliable since there is no concerns about leakage or durability as there is with CCS. He said that CCS would be a parallel project used until the onground renewable sources become more attractive economically. But he also believes 'coal will always be used'.

CCS, according to ZEP, will start contributing only after 2020. Shell's Sweeney said that history shows that energy technologies need at least 25 years between their conception and reaching 1% of the global energy mix. So, in reality it might be much longer untill CCS makes a substantial contribution to reducing CO2.

These long term scenarios do not fit with the need of urgent reduction before 2020 and would mean wasting money on an uncertain experiment. The only thing they will surely achieve is to preserve the dominant position of the old fossil fuel companies for another 40 or 50 years more.

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“Danish text” leak yet another example of biased behaviour by COP15 host

Corporate Europe Observatory is in Copenhagen covering the UN climate talks and watching corporate lobbyists at work.

Yesterday the Danish hosts of the UN climate talks (COP15) had a draft agreement on the Copenhagen negotiations leaked to the public which once again emphasised the privileged access and influence given to the rich and the powerful by the (officially neutral) hosts.

The leaked draft breaks with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" as laid down in the Kyoto protocol, where rich countries are required to live up to their historic responsibility as major emitters by taking legally binding targets upon themselves, while the poor countries, least responsible for and most affected by climate change, aren't compelled to act.

It also transfers responsibility for mitigation funds to the World Bank, historically a front organisation for the interests of the rich countries, thus weakening the UN's role on this issue.

The draft presents no surprises in so far as it only constitutes yet another example of the Danish host government acting like anything but the neutral broker envisioned. This time around undue influence was giving to the rich countries trying to avoid strong legally binding targets, but also big business has experienced a very attentive host nation. In May, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) reported how “big business was being given unprecedented access to the UN climate negotiations” at the World Business Summit on Climate Change.

CEO researcher Kenneth Haar commented that "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. But unfortunately, this doesn't seem likely to be the case."

Instead of reducing the damaging influence from big corporations trying to undermine effective action on climate change, the Danish government decided to give them direct access to the chief negotiators by distributing the conclusions from the Business Summit.

A Danish official has dismissed the criticism of the Danish hosts “it's no secret that there have been ongoing bilateral discussions for some time now." Whether a question of big business or rich countries, there is no way it is morally defensible nor constructive to the negotiations that the host itself doesn't seek to be inclusive and neutral in it's dealings.

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