The Guardian17 December 2009Suzanne Golderberg and John Vidal
Lulu, president of Brazil?
Is there a Lulu in the house? The White House had a few moments of embarrassment last night when it put out its customary "readout" of Barack Obama's telephone calls with world leaders. Obama has been working the phones to try to get developing countries on board with a climate deal — a fact that the White House is anxious to emphasise. "Readout of the president's call with President Lulu of Brazil and prime minister of Grenada," the original release said. The correction, with Lula, arrived 25 minutes later.
Inhofe brings the climate contrarian cavalry
James Inhofe, the Republican who is the lead climate change contrarian in the Senate, has arrived in Copenhagen to gloat over the sense of rising panic on the penultimate day of the talks. "So the Copenhagen talks are stalemated. It's clear to all the developing countries don't want burdensome regulations to stifle their economy. I don't blame them," he said in a statement, going on to forecast that US climate change legislation would also die in the Senate.
Civil society makes room for high society
Under 1,000 of the original 8,000 members of civil society are now allowed into the conference centre, to make room for world leaders arriving today and tomorrow. Greenpeace, Oxfam, ActionAid, Friends of the Earth International, the WWF and others have been allowed a handful of people each. But the groups in the south are even more curtailed: the UN has base allocated numbers on membership, and most poor countries have small membership bases. Visitors arriving at the conference centre this morning saw empty booths for Oxfam, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Action Aid and Friends of the Earth. The only sign of the former presence were posters pinned on to the wall, saying: "Civil society has been removed from negotiations. How can you decide about us without us?"
NGOs consult lawyers over evictions
NGOs have been consulting their lawyers over their evictions. Even though Denmark has a law under the Aarhus convention that guarantees the public access to international meetings, it does not wash in Copenhagen. So quite a few activists have taken to trying to spend the night in the conference centre. Unfortunately that tactic failed too — Greenpeace was chucked out at 2.30am this morning.
Journalists excluded from red zone
First they come for the public, then for the press. The world's 3,000 or more journalists here in Copenhagen were told on arrival at the conference today that a red zone has been created that restricts reporters from conference rooms and delegates' headquarters. Anyone who wanted to go to a press conference would also have to be escorted by UN staff. There was fury at the news, which effectively turns the press centre into an island. "It's a shambles," said Shane Smart of EuroTV. "We have an interview in five minutes with the head of the IPCC, but they won't let us through to see him. Our producer is going crazy." "Tell the world this is a Scandinavian police state," said a Bolivian delegate. Eventually the UN was given such a hard time by the press it temporaraily abandoned its journalist security measures. But it appears to have erected red zones elsewhere in the centre.
Prescott on the err, campaign trail
John Prescott has announced that he will stand down as an MP at the next general election, but at Copenhagen today he sounded distinctly like he was on the campaign trail — or hankering for a return to the cabinet. "Thank god, we have a leader like Gordon Brown!" the former UK deputy prime minister said in praising the premier for being the first head of government to confirm his attendance at the climate talks and going further than his counterparts in pledging finance. "If there was ever a time when needed a conquering hero, it is now. Perhaps I am building him up too much, but if this meeting comes off, it will have a lot to do with Gordon." But Prescott was distinctly less enthusiastic about the organisation of the conference. "As I stood in the line for three hours trying to get in on the first day, I was not impressed."
