IN COPENHAGEN
IT IS 2:30pm on Tuesday here in Copenhagen, and it is snowing — so there will probably be a white Christmas after all for locals to enjoy once the over 45,000 visitors have left. The temperature is forecast to drop to minus 3 degrees Celsius by Thursday!
Inside the Bella Centre though, the temperature is rising as world leaders begin to arrive. There will be another massive demonstration of civil society concern on Wednesday, with protestors saying they are committed to non-violence. They have a permit to march to the Bella Centre, so it will be interesting.
Every day the climate change summit offers a huge range of interesting events and press conferences, and it can be frustrating trying to be in several places at the same time — and writing about everything.
Today I found the queue to get into the event hosted by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was just to long to waste time in, so I opted for the Angry Mermaid Award event.
On the way though, I bumped into Nick Griffin, leader of the notoriously right wing British National Party, who believes climate change is a hoax.
He was examining models of new high tech bridges made of granite and stabilized with carbon fibre — a way to lock away carbon — offered by the Global Centre for Efficiency of Resources and Materials. He gave me a quick smile as I hovered around taking pictures.
Nick Griffin: Climate change is a hoax. PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh
"He was more than interested," said the GCERM representative after he had left.
A few metres away were the kind of people Nick Griffin possibly doesn’t mix with very much.
Mary Wahu Kaara: Climate change is an emotional issue. PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh
Charismatic Kenyan educationist, writer, poet and campaigner for social justice Mary Wahu Kara, explaining to a TV crew how the effects of climate change make already tough lives, worse for the poor and marginalized, was a deeply emotional issue for her.
Stine Gry Jonassen: In the frontline. PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh
Right next to her giving interviews was Stine Gry Jonassen, a spokesperson for the Climate Justice Now network, currently very much in the news following police crackdowns on civil society protestors last Saturday and on Monday night in Copenhagen's Christiania neighbourhood.
And inside a room giving out the Angry Mermaid award to Monsanto, the agriculture technology giant which has sparked deep controversy around the world with its genetically modified seeds, were yet another network of civil society organizations fronted by among others, Friends of the Earth International's Paul de Clerck and Canadian journalist, activist and author of Shock Doctrine — a scathing critique of global corporations.
Paul de Clerck: Expose the corporate lobbyists. PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh
The award was meant to throw a light on big corporations who have consistently lobbied against action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
10,000 voted from across the world — mostly online — for several nominees including the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the American Petroleum Institute, the European Chemical Lobby, the International Air Transport Association, the oil company Shell, the South African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation, and the International Emissions Trading Association.
Monsanto won hands down with 37 per cent of the vote. Shell clocked in at second place with 18 per cent, followed by the American Petroleum Institute with 14 per cent.
"With the Angry Mermaid award we want to expose the role (of the corporate lobbyists), we want to show the public and decision makers how corporate lobbyists are undermining effective action on climate change and promoting false solutions," said de Clerck.
"What we see (in UN negotiations) is that solutions pushed for are mainly instruments that will generate profits for companies, but most of these instruments do not result in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and some of them are even destroying the environment and local communities' rights."
He outlined how each of the nominated companies had promoted "false solutions" and spent millions in lobbying to undermine climate change policies designed to curb greenhouse gas reductions.
Dorothy Guerrero of Focus on the Global South, said for many poorer southern countries, corporations were as or even more powerful than governments — and state repression was used to quell protests by communities.
Naomi Klein: Canada is a "climate criminal". PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh
Naomi Klein lashed out at the coddling of big corporations in "polite" climate change negotiations. Why not talk about taxing windfall profits of oil companies, she said. Canada — her own country — was a "climate criminal" for allowing the use of highly polluting tar sands.
"We sit here talking about legally binding agreements but that means nothing if the power of the fossil fuel lobby nixes the enforcement of those agreements," she said.
"We are not talking about the oil and gas companies behind the tar sands who are profiting. We are journalists here, I am a journalist, our job is to follow the money, and that’s what this award is about."
Read more from Nirmal Ghosh in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
Read Jessica Cheam's blog about test driving a 100 per cent electric car in Copenhagen.