Civil society groups unhappy over exclusion from climate talks

COPENHAGEN – As world leaders scrambled to reach a last-minute deal Friday to combat climate change, non-government organizations and other civil society groups expressed disappointment over their exclusion from the negotiations that they have been tracking for many years. Many of the NGO booths at the Bella Center, the venue of the climate summit hosted by Denmark, have been empty since Wednesday following the arrival of heads of state and governments for the high-level segment of the talks. Instead of the usual lively bunch of environmental advocates, the booths displayed posters saying “Civil society has been removed from the negotiations" and “How can you decide about us without us?" Maira Zahur from the Gender CC (Climate Change) group, one of the few booths that remained open, said the United Nations secretariat handling the conference had limited the number of delegates per constituency to a tiny fraction of their usual participation in the international meeting. “This is really sad. They have excluded us even though women are most at risk from climate change," she said. Out of more than 100 delegates during the early part of the two-week conference, Zahur said only three from their sector were allowed inside Bella Center in the last few days.

Vicky Corpuz of the Baguio-based Tebtebba Foundation said only 10 people out of some 200 participants from the indigenous peoples’ sector were allowed at the conference venue due to the unprecedented number of world leaders and delegates attending the meeting. Denmark had lobbied to host the climate summit, which aims to set new targets for industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the first round of commitments from the Kyoto Protocol expires. (See related: Denmark rolls out green carpet for climate summit) On Wednesday, the UN press office announced that access to the Bella Center would be restricted to government delegates and accredited media. Entry for accredited observers and NGO representatives was limited to an “established system of quotas" but the Danish government designated an alternative venue for civil society events at the Forum Copenhagen across town. More than 45,000 people had applied for accreditation to the conference, about three times the capacity of Bella Center, a UN press release said. The figure included 3,500 press people from all over the world who were covering the talks. In recent years, attendance in the conference usually reached around 10,000 and media people were allowed to enter the hall where plenary sessions are held. This time, however, the press could only cover the proceedings from the monitors in the media center. Corpuz said the conference organizers seemed to have gone overboard with the security arrangements, and noted that some plenary sessions were half empty due to the restrictions. “It’s not really needed. You can see there’s so much space at the meeting rooms and the booths. The world leaders were talking to empty halls because they would not let many of our people in," she said. She also criticized Danish authorities for their harsh treatment of protesters, saying one of her friends sustained head injuries from a police baton and had to be brought to a hospital after a rally on Wednesday. Colorful protests For several days, television footage of police arresting protesters and violently dispersing rallies calling for global action on climate change were a familiar sight in the host city. But in the gray cold of December, other environment activists clad in colorful costumes provided a flashy interlude from the seriousness of the climate talks in the heart of the Danish capital. Just outside the gate of the Bella Center, vegetarian activists kept up a steady vigil in the freezing cold during the two-week conference. Wearing chicken and rabbit suits, they gently pleaded with delegates to shun meat-eating lifestyles to reduce the emission of methane from cattle production and prevent conversion of forests to pasture. Across the city, an artists’ group presented impromptu street plays outside the Klima Forum, billed as the people’s climate summit providing an alternative discussion venue for other sectors that are not included in the Bella Center meeting. One of the plays featured an actor in a penguin suit whose world in the form of a blue ball depicting the earth is literally tossed around by humans. Along one of the city’s canals, the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise added a touch of green and yellow to the somber skyline with banners and posters exhorting WORLD leaders to act wisely because “There is no planet B" if they fail to agree on international action to address climate change. – with video by Pia Faustino, GMANews.TV