Climate change "action hero" looks beyond COP15

by Carmelo Amalfi
CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says the world will continue to pursue ways to curb global warming even if no resolution is reached at the Copenhagen conference.
"Technological and economic forces will overtake the political and regulatory efforts of governments," he told delegates at COP15.
"The world's governments alone cannot make progress. They need everyone working together."
Using his state as an example, Schwarzenegger said California - the seventh biggest economy in the world - and other countries had already embraced the green revolution.
"The power of influence we have is equivalent to that of a continent," the Austrian-born former Hollyood actor said.
"In California, we are proceeding with renewable energy and a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases.
"Nearly 60 per cent of venture capital in the US flows to California, creating a critical mass of money and intellect to create new green technologies."
California was one of the first states in the US to commit to reducing greenhouse gases by 30 per cent to 1990 levels by 2020.
Schwarzenegger said he believed the world's business community will move to solar and wind and other alternative technologies much faster than most people expect.
He said developing countries will leapfrog into the green economy and skip the fossil fuel industry.
"We are beginning one of history's great transitions to build an economic foundation for the 21st century," he said.
"This conference is already a success."
He also offered to host a climate summit to continue the work achieved at COP15.

Rudd accused of lying to Australia on climate change

by Carmelo Amalfi
CHIEF negotiators in Copenhagen have accused Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of a climate change con.
Chinese delegates and Sudanese chairman of the G77 group representing 132 developing countries told reporters Mr Rudd was a liar.
Lumumba Di-Aping, who caused a political storm when he accused developed countries last week of drafting a secret deal to sideline the Kyoto Protocol, claimed the Australian Government was not genuine in its promise to fight climate change.
He said Mr Rudd’s message to people in Australia was, “a fabrication, it’s fiction”, when his promise at the last election was to join the Kyoto Protocol and global efforts to curb global warming.
“All what Australia has done so far is simply not good enough,” Di-Aping said, claiming Mr Rudd was trying to gain a strategic economic advantage by siding with the United States and European Union.
“Australia is committed to killing Kyoto,” he said.
Neither Mr Rudd nor Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, who are at COP15, have yet to comment.
Di-Aping’s claims precede the arrival of world leaders and heads of state in Copenhagen.
Mr Rudd told a news conference that his aim was to get the best possible agreement for Australia. That meant getting a genuine agreement between rich and poor nations that was, “the cheapest, the most effective, the most pro-jobs agreement possible”.
“Just as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is the cheapest most effective way to act on climate change locally, so too is an agreement here in Copenhagen the cheapest and most effective way to act globally,” he said.
Mr Rudd flew into Copenhagen without parliamentary approval of his carbon trade laws, stating the talks were at risk of failure unless there was a compromise between the developed and emerging economies of the world.
But he was confident a landmark deal could be endorsed by the end of the week when US president Barack Obama is expected to arrive.
“We have a fundamental national interest at stake in securing the strongest possible global agreement, because it affects Australia,” he said.

When push comes to shove in Copenhagen

by Katie Day, Sana Mazloum, Isabelle Tolhurst and Matt Whitby

HUNDREDS of protestors in Copenhagen at the weekend were arrested and detained by Danish police guarding roads leading to the United Nations climate change conference.
Masked youths clashed with riot police to voice their concerns over the lack of action so far at COP15.
Protestors not caught behind the police lines spent hours calling on police to release their comrades, chanting “let them go” to the beat of drums.
Copenhagen resident Anders Solem said the demonstration was “tame” compared to past protests: “Most of the troubles on the street were started by young people who are not really environmental activists but just angry kids who want to fight the police.”
Police refused to reveal the reason behind restricting the movement of what was largely a peaceful demonstration.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered in the palace square at Christiansborg, calling for action to fight global warming by world leaders due to arrive this week.
The march ended at the COP15 venue at Bella Center, just outside the city, where activists held a candle-lit vigil late into the night.
Anti-capitalist group Not Your Business had tried to infiltrate several corporations at an organised demonstration starting at Nytorv and ending in a blockade on the city bridge.
Activists plan to try again after nearly 70 were arrested. Chanting “our climate, not your business”, they were stopped by police blockades.
Protestors threw cobblestones at the windows of the historic stock exchange and Foreign Ministry buildings.
Flares were set off as crowds ignored police calls to disperse.
Traffic also came to a standstill.
Police said bolt-cutters and gas masks were found during a search of a truck that led the demonstration. Only 13 of the 968 people detained during the mass rally remained in custody Sunday.
Reports say of those, three - including two Danes and a Frenchman - faced preliminary charges of fighting with police.
An estimated 40,000 people joined the mostly peaceful march toward the two-week conference which opened on December 7.
Observers criticised Danish laws that allowed police to make preventative arrests if they suspected a demonstration will turn violent and hold suspected troublemakers for up to 12 hours without a court arraignment.
The COP15 conference was suspended Sunday so police could sweep the area ahead of the arrival of world leaders, including American president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In Australia, climate change protesters scaled the Sydney Opera House and unfurled a banner saying, "Stop the politics, climate treaty now".
The protest is seen as an embarrassment for police after security was upgraded at the Opera House and Harbour Bridge because of the growing risk of a terrorist attack.

On your bike ... for climate change

by Ben O’Halloran
HE got lost in Mongolia, robbed twice in China and Turkey and suffered sunstroke in northern Australia.
After 18 months covering 22 countries and some of the world’s toughest terrain, Kim Nguyen, 28, has arrived in Denmark – on his bike.
Attending the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Kim said he was lucky to have arrived in one piece. He was hospitalised three times.
“The most difficult part of my journey was in northern Australia and South-East Asia because of the heat,” he said, having repaired 15 punctures on his 18,000km ride.
“The coldest was Belgrade when I rode through a storm.”
The social worker who wants to promote sustainable travel says he plans to sail back to Australia once he raises enough money.
Sporting a beard he grew from Istanbul to Copenhagen, Kim left Brisbane on August 10, 2008, arriving in the Danish capital to coincide with Ride Planet Earth’s global campaign to fight climate change.
Cyclists from around the world joined Kim on his epic trek through some of the most beautiful and inhospitable parts of the planet, riders in Copenhagen accompanying him through the Danish capital on the last leg to the conference.
Speaking at the alternative climate conference Klimaforum09, Kim hopes to address delegates attending COP15 and pass on messages from around the world.
He set up a blogsite so people could follow him on his journey to the conference.
Kim’s bike ride covered East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and eastern and central Europe.
On day 390 of his ride along the Black Sea Coast, just before entering Turkey back in September, he wrote: “A young man … reached his hand into my back pocket and tried to pull out my wallet. I turned, furious, realising suddenly the reason for his lurking presence behind me. I pushed and shoved him in the chest as he tried to slide into the crowd, surprised at my own aggression, with the vague idea of intimidating him into a life of legitimacy.”
Kim’s friend Mamuka urged the young rider to leave immediately: “That man is a bad man. He has said he will kill you. This is Georgia, this is not Australia.”
Read Kim’s blog at http://rideplanetearth.org.

Police prepare to defend climate change conference

by Ben O’Halloran
UP to 6000 police have converged on Copenhagen to crack down on violent activists threatening to gatecrash the UN conference on climate change.
The protests are expected to attract more than 60,000 people to the Bella Center venue to coincide with the arrival of world leaders at the weekend.
The Danish Government passed new laws in the lead-up to the two-week conference for police to arrest and detain people suspected of trying to enter the conference.
On Wednesday, police seized a cache of 200 makeshift shields, paint bombs and other equipment, including nine platforms with crude staircases, after a police raid on a building that city officials had provided as free housing for activists visiting the Danish capital during the international climate talks.
Police say the demonstrators, who will march the 7km from the Danish Parliament to the Bella Center, intended to use the stairs to climb the barricades erected outside the heavily secured centre.
Under the $122 million crackdown dubbed by activists as the “turmoil and riot” law, police can hold people for up to 40 days if they believe they will be a public threat.
Makeshift holding cells have been established in an abandoned warehouse in the city to cope with the anticipated number of arrests.
Copenhagen police coordinator Per Larsen said the heavy police presence was needed to keep the peace during the conference.
He believes the holding pens are not over the top, but a deterrent against activists who wanted to disrupt the peaceful meetings.
Climate Justice Action, a global group committed to fighting climate change, has said despite the heavy police presence, demonstrators will break into the conference and take over proceedings under the guise of a ‘peoples assembly’.
It believes the UN climate talks will not solve the climate crisis: “We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when international negotiations began 15 years ago.
“Emissions are rising faster than ever, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to pollute and profit. The talks are essentially legitimising a new colonialism that carves up of the world’s remaining resources.”
“In response to this madness, a global movement for climate justice has emerged to reclaim power over our future.”

Danish police issued a statement in the lead-up to the COP15 conference which states:
* in Denmark, people have freedom of speech and the freedom to assemble
* participants must be unarmed and demonstrations must not be violent
• demonstrations, processions, and public meetings must be reported to the police no later than 24 hours prior to their start
• unless attacked, the police can only intervene in demonstrations if the crowd has been ordered to disperse three times in the name of the Queen and the law
• it is prohibited to wear a hood or mask or paint your face when participating in public gatherings or demonstrations, in order not to be identified
• if violence or threats are aimed at policemen or other persons in public service, special and more stringent regulations apply
• it is prohibited to be in possession of knives and other weapons in public places. Violation of this rule can result in detention, imprisonment and expulsion
• police can carry out body searches of all citizens in certain areas in order to find weapons.