Collapse in Copenhagen: Climate Justice Advocates Demand a Deal, But COP15 is a Meltdown

Civil society, NGOs, island nations and nations from the Global South all demanded a "FAB" - fair, ambitious and binding - deal from this month's COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen. But as the summit concluded Friday, the only proposals on the table were none of the above. Some world leaders remained at the summit well past midnight, hashing out a document many are calling a "COPout." Others, such as President Obama, scurried to the airport to escape the climate crime scene that is Copenhagen's Bella Centre. At 2am inside the Centre, dozens of people chanting "Climate Justice Now!" held pictures of Obama with "Climate Shame" printed across his forehead.

The mass movement for climate justice on the streets of Copenhagen was, predictably, met with brutal force by the Danish Politi. Even accredited delegates were savagely beaten back with batons while attempting to walk out of the Bella Centre. In response, a call for solidarity actions prompted demonstrations worldwide. In Minneapolis (photos), a small group marched for climate justice on Nicollet Mall Friday night, just before the start of the city's popular "Holidazzle" parade.

Solidarity Reports from other US IMCs: Houston | Bay Area | Washington, DC (1, 2) ||| Full reports from COP15: IMC Denmark | Climate IMC | icop15.org aggregator | PDF of Copenhagen Accord - "recognized" by UN, to be adopted by national parliaments

At the Minneapolis vigil, 15-20 people first gathered outside the street-facing studio of WCCO, a network that regularly features climate deniers. When WCCO promptly blocked its windows so that climate justice advocates wouldn't contaminate the background of the evening news, the activists took to the street between the hundreds of people lined up to watch the Holidazzle.

With chants drawing the connections between climate change, a bloated military budget, and the bank bailout, the message was a stark contrast to the glitzy overconsumption and energy use of the city's holiday parade.

The march made it all the way to the end of the parade route at the downtown library with zero interference from the police. This prompted the question of the potential impact if more had attended on a night which was warmer than most of December thus far. 

Given the urgency of climate justice demonstrations at COP15, and resurgence in U.S. climate organizing such as through the group 350, one couldn't be blamed for finding the turnout Friday discouraging.  With the United States and Canada the lead perpetrators of derailing the Denmark talks, any sort of action within North America is a crucial step towards preserving the existence of southern nations and indigenous peoples worldwide.

Earlier this week in Denmark, arrested activists rioted at the so-called "climate prison" in Valby, where many of the detainees there have been held. In addition to the hundreds arrested in kettles and pre-emptive raids - incuding nearly 1,000 during last Saturday's 100,000-strong demonstration alone - one report estimated that 15-20 organizers were still being held on more serious charges. One of those organizers is a well-known anarchist from Denver, who has been remanded for trial in January.

Before the final negotiating sessions on Thursday and Friday, nearly all the accredited delegates from civil society were unceremoniously booted from the convention center, making it clear that the resulting failure of politicians to reach a deal rests solely on the shoulders of the wealthy and privileged.

"The "deal" or the "Copenhagen Accord" that the Danes have been keen to get, promises nothing. Whilst it acknowledges a maximum 2 degree temperature rise target, it makes no proposals on emissions reductions and contains nothing that is binding," wrote a poster to Indymedia Denmark.

The proposed agreement early Saturday morning sought to privide $30 billion to poor countries from 2010 to 2012 to adapt to climate change, a paltry sum compared to war spending and a rejection of what the Global South had asked for: justice and reparations, not charity.

It also cut out completely the previous goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050.

"The Accord is little more than rhetoric hiding a failure to actually address the climate crisis," said Michael Dorsey of the Climate Justice Now! Network late Friday night from Copenhagen.  "This destructive Accord represents a death sentence for Africa, the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples, and small island nations."

"An accord secretly crafted without the participation of developing countries is another example of the U.S. using its power to manipulate the outcome with no binding commitments," said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "We are highly suspicious of the tactics of the U.S. ... Indigenous peoples here in Copenhagen have been demanding action -- not false hopes and empty promises -- and these delays and bullying tactics amount to continued carbon colonialism."

And Camila Moreno, of the Global Justice Ecology Project from Porto Alegre, Brazil, said, "The COP 15 has seen an obscene amount of lobbying by the emerging corporate carbon dealers who are peddling false solutions, while the oil and coal lobbies are still the elephant in the room. The common sense solutions that have been demanded by social movements and civil society around the world are to leave fossil fuels in the ground and make a deal that is legally binding. Today's developments do nothing to move those real solutions forward and could wipe entire nations off the map."

The skyway during Holidazzle... Minneapolis' equivalent of the Climate Survivaball!

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, self-proclaimed world leaders clung to the Danish police for safety from the masses demanding inclusion in the process.