COPENHAGEN: With over 120 state leaders gathering in the Bella Center in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference, security was heightened considerably. The police cordoned off the whole area around the conference venue. In fact, there was no public transportation there. If you needed to reach it – walking is the only option. Later in the day, chaos broke out inside and outside the conference venue. Outside, thousands of protesters gathered to voice their anger at world leaders for failing to come to an agreement till now. “This is an act of civil disobedience, but we will not start violence,†said one of the protesters. But when they tried to break into the cordoned Bella Center, the police got rough. Batons and tear gas were used to break the protesters and over 200 people were arrested. Many of the protesters complained of the hard-handedness of the police. Eventually, the police managed to push protesters back much further, cordoning an even bigger area. But inside the conference, it was equally strange. The Danish conference president Connie Hedegaard suddenly resigned, with the Prime Minister taking over her position. The reason given was that, with all the high profile state members attending, it was more fitting for the Prime Minister to take over. Moreover, many of the NGOs who had been issues agreements to attend were barred from entering the conference. Friends of the Earth said that none of their members were allowed in. “It is a crisis of democracy when campaigning charities like Friends of the Earth are prevented from speaking up on behalf of communities around the globe within the talks themselves,†said Andy Atkins, executive director of FOE. But still, the real issue remains in the text. One day away from the deadline, and the text is still mainly made up of brackets. Bracketed text is text that has not been agreed upon. One look at the material and it’s obvious; there hardly have been any issues resolved. While work continued frantically behind closed doors to come up with an agreement to present tomorrow, world leaders took turns to give speeches on their position regarding climate change. Fifty-one speakers can take up a lot of time. But once President Mohammed Nasheed came on, everyone stood there mesmerized. As I watched closely and listened to him, I thought “this man is a rock star!†He spoke about how we can’t afford to waste time, and how we all need to get together, act as one, and come to a deal for all. With tears in my eyes at his words, the one thought I had on my mind was: why can’t the other leaders get it like he does? If we had more Mohammed Nasheed’s, things would have gone very, very differently in the COP15. BM
