Finding the action at COP15

• Angela Kim | Dec 11, 2009 5:13 PM
• 1 comments

If you’ve been looking for the big story from the UN climate conferences, it’s that the news has been slow. Real slow. But don’t lose hope because this weekend could change everything.

I’m not talking about the global leaders descending upon Copenhagen in the final days of the negotiations - I’m talking about the protesters who have already started to get arrested and more demonstrators on their way.

(Photo by InvestigateWest via Flickr)

Why is everyone coming this weekend? Well, this weekend is the global day of action to bring attention to climate change. Climate change activist groups like 350.org and tcktcktck have planned events to get negotiators to make a real deal on climate change on Saturday and Sunday. These groups don’t want some gesture or symbolic treaty - they want a global binding treaty.

But not all the groups that will be protesting this weekend want the same thing.

Anti-capitalism groups actually want the meetings to stop. Why? It’s not that they hate the earth or that they don’t believe in climate change, it’s because some think this event is about big business and money. They are partly right though because money has been at the forefront at these meetings. Poor nations want rich nations to pay up, and Europe said they actually can put in some money to help poor nations, and of course there are hundreds of businesses who are showing off their innovations to battle climate change.

The United Nations climate change conferences aren’t known to have rough and rowdy protests like the WTO meetings. But with the so much at stake, who knows what might happen this weekend.

The real question is if these groups get through to any of the negotiators who are making the decisions.