http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,663858,00.html

Protesters Fail in Attempt to Storm Copenhagen Talks

AP

Danish riot police attempting to prevent demonstrators from breaking into the Bella Center, where the Copenhagen climate talks are being held.

Anti-climate change activists attempted to raid the Copenhagen climate summit on Wednesday, but were held back by Danish police. Critique over the authorities’ heavy-handed ways is on the rise. Read SPIEGEL ONLINE’s Climate Countdown to keep up to date as the Copenhagen conference moves forward.

Climate Protest Quashed by Danish Police

 

Danish police on Wednesday foiled an attempt by demonstrators to break into the convention center in Copenhagen where the United Nations climate summit is taking place, arresting over 100 activists.  

Climate Justice Action, a consortium of activists and non-governmental organizations committed to combating climate change, had made public that they planned to storm the climate conference Wednesday and “disrupt the sessions” in order to bring their agenda to the delegates inside.

 

Reports indicate, however, that the planned march didn’t make it very far. Reuters reported that Danish police fired tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators as they tried to push through barricades outside the United Nations conference. French news agency AFP reported that as 1,500 activists began storming the conference, voicing their discontent with the delegates inside and blaring techno music, police beat them back with dogs and tear gas. A police helicopter hovered overhead keeping an eye on the action.  

The AFP quoted police spokesman Johnny Lundberg as saying the arrests were for attempting to pass through the security perimeter surrounding Bella Center, where the climate conference is being held. No injuries were reported. Security forces “will not tolerate any act of violence but are also seeking a dialogue with the demonstrators,” he said.

Demonstrators contend that the nations meeting in Copenhagen are not taking radical enough steps in order to curb climate change. “The message we want to get across is that we need a radical new climate agenda,” Kevin Smith, a participant from Climate Justice Action, told AFP.

In some ways, it seemed the police had the jump on the activists all along. Climate Justice Action released a press release on Tuesday announcing that Tadzio Müller, political scientist and climate activist with Climate Justice Action, was arrested by three undercover Danish police officers yesterday afternoon on suspicion of planning criminal actions after presenting the group’s protest plans for Wednesday at a press conference.

Police then raided a bicycle shop used by demonstrators, before arresting another 35 people at Klimaforum, an alternative climate change summit happening simultaneously, according to the press release. Before the demonstration even began, police were checking cars and buses heading into the Bella Center. Police also kept a close eye on the area of Noerrebro, where many foreign activists are housed.

“There is less and less hope in the (Copenhagen) process, and more and more willingness to trample over people’s civil liberties in order to stop the mass civil disobedience that will take place at the summit on Wednesday,” Kamille Hjuler of Climate Justice Action said in a statement.

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European Union Backing Away from Emissions Reduction Goals?

The offer from the European Union was a generous one. The 27-nation block has committed itself to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020 relative to 1990. But, EU leaders agreed, if other countries commit themselves to ambitious reduction targets, Brussels would raise its target cuts to 30 percent by 2020.

With the talks in Copenhagen bogged down this week, however, the EU is reportedly backing away from its higher offer. The Financial Times Deutschland reports on Wednesday that EU negotiators are currently working on a position that would see the bloc backing off to a cut of 26 percent against 1990 emissions. The 30 percent reduction goal would then be postponed to 2025.

“Those are the options that we are currently developing,” an unnamed EU negotiator told the financial daily.

The change comes as both the US and China are digging their heels in and refusing to consider an increase in their emissions reduction targets. The US has offered a mere 4 percent cut in emissions by 2020 over 1990 levels. China has pledged to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted per dollar of economic activity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 relative to 1990 — a commitment which still assumes an increase in absolute terms in the amount of CO2 the country pumps into the atmosphere.

The European Union move also has the advantage of potentially avoiding an internal debate about the bloc’s emission reduction goals. Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk came out against the higher EU target, saying “if we massacre the economy while others continue to emit just as much as before, then it makes no sense.”

A further hurdle is represented by efforts to come up with an agreement on long-term financial help for developing countries to both counter the effects of climate change and to introduce measures to combat global warming. United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon told the Financial Times on Tuesday that it is “not quite sure” whether such an agreement will be reached this week. “We can start next year discussing this matter,” he said.

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Further Complaints Logged Against Danish Police

As the climate talks head into the final stretch this week, climate change groups and advocacy organizations are complaining that the Danish police are detaining peaceful protestors unnecessarily and violating their rights.

Since the start of the conference, the Danish police have already detained over 1,600 demonstrators, some of which set fire to barricades and hurled Molotov cocktails at riot police on Monday evening. But Ole Hoff-Lund, a spokesman for Amnesty International Denmark says that the police were out of line when they detained hundreds of innocent protestors along with the small number of violent ones.

“Hundreds of innocent peaceful demonstrators, who only were there to use their right of freedom of speech, were forcefully taken by police,” Hoff-Lund told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “We believe the police could very quickly have distinguished between those who were there for violence and those who were peaceful,” he added.

German newspaper Die Tageszeitung also reported Wednesday that Danish police had used pepper spray against detained protestors. On Sunday and Monday, police threatened detainees locked in cages with pepper spray, because they were making noise in their cells. After the detainees put mats and blankets in front of the cell bars to protect themselves, the police then climbed on top of the cages and sprayed the detainees from above, according to protestor Anna Kollerup, as quoted in Die Tageszeitung. The blankets, mats and water bottles were then confiscated, the paper reported.

The Danish police are operating under a new law, passed by the Danish Ministry of Justice in November, that increased the penalties for police obstruction and vandalism. The law allows police to detain potentially dangerous protesters for up to 12 hours instead of six, for example. Jail time for obstructing police also increased. Actvisits have called the new law “hostile,” accused the Danish police of threating freedom of speech and assembly.

An officer in the Danish police press center said he had no knowledge of pepper spray being used on detainees. If a formal complaint is filed, the police officers said, the department will look into it and take appropriate measures.

The officer added the Danish police force always try to operate within the realm of Danish law, but added that when such large scale police actions and tactical manoeuvres occur, “it is almost impossible, regrettable though it is, to avoid that some people who are actually peaceful attendees are actually detained.”

“The only thing we can do is apologize for the inconvenience,” he added.