Copenhagen COP-15

I apologise wholeheartedly for my absence - despite numerous wifi hotspots and the safe haven of the Fresh Air Center (thanks Tck Tck Tck!) I had a rather unfortunate mishap with my beautiful macbook yesterday which involved it being soaked in water. Not due to police misbehaviour, I might add, more my own stupidity in jumping up and down through the carnival crowd of the Global Day of Action Demo.

No doubt, news of 900 arrests have been thoroughly reported within the British media. What perhaps has not been reported is the hundred thousand strong crowd who marched on the Bella Center where the conference is happening in a peaceful carnival with one message - to end climate chaos and seek a fair, ambitious and binding deal as a result of the conference. We were part of a spectacular international crowd who, despite the hundreds of languages spoken, all had the same message, and it was truly exciting to be part of such a significant movement. Various charities provided floats with soundsystems which rolled through the broad Danish streets pumping out Bob Marley and the Who. Actionaid and the Danish Communist Party provided the best tunes in my opinion!

Our mission was to reach the Bella Center for a candlelit vigil, but unfortunately the 8km walk was rather a slow burn and we did not make it in time. When we did finally make it there, we found French anarchists insisting that we return to save our comrades trapped on the bridge and facing police brutality. I personally did not witness any direct violent action, but from what I can gather, a small group of aggressive individuals hurled rocks at the police whilst wearing masks (an illegal act during protests in Denmark) and it kicked off. There are always certain groups who attend such events to exercise their civil liberties and seek violence. However, my belief is that the majority of the 900 arrested will have been swept up with the chaos of the action. I know at least two friends who were held for 9 hours outside in the below freezing temperatures without food, or water, and were forced to kneel on the ground.

Kettling was widely used, as were holding cages (which can be seen here) and police brutality has been widely reported within the community of activists. Naomi Klein wrote well on the mismanagement of the Global Day of Action in today's Guardian. It is a relief to see now that we have returned that some facets of the media have been fairly representing the activists. There has been a rather glaring disparity between the numbers provided by the Danish police and the organisers of the Day of Action; the former suggesting 30,000 whilst the latter suggested 100,000. Having spent the weekend before at the Wave in London (which had 50,000 attendees), I would say that Saturday in Copenhagen saw numbers closer to Tck Tck Tck's estimation.

It has been a surreal few days. I have spent more time in transit than actually in Copenhagen, and the NGO that I attended with as an activist have proven themselves to be frustratingly disorganised and very poorly managed. I believe that had I atended the COP-15 as an independent activist, I could have gleaned a more holistic overview of the conference as a whole, and been able to report more widely on the week's events. As it stands, the clout of the NGO got me through many doors, but the poor scheduling allowed no time for exploration, and this is where my frustration lies. I seriously hope that there will be some impressive eleventh hour negotiations and that Gordon Brown does push for the reduction of 30% on 1990 CO2 levels by 2020. As many of the placards read, there is no planet B, and it is imperative that an ambitious, safe and binding is reached.