More arrests made in Copenhagen

Denmark’s security forces clamp down swiftly on protesters to prevent demonstration.

copenhagen demo
Over 1,000 protesters have been arrested in two days, though few remain in custody (AFP)

“They have arrested 1,000 people [over the two days]. And they only followed up on three of them,” Ida Thuesen, a  spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said.

“There are lot of people who haven’t done anything and had no intention of doing anything.”

Symbols of change

The climate conference took a day off on Sunday, though more than 40 environment ministers and other high-level negotiators were meeting for informal talks at the Danish foreign ministry on greenhouse emissions cuts and financing for poor nations to deal with climate change.

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The pledges on emissions cuts so far are short of the minimum proposed in a draft agreement to keep temperatures from rising to a dangerous level.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa joined church leaders from Tuvalu, Zambia, Mexico, Greenland and Denmark to warn about the dangers of a warming world.

They carried symbols of climate change – a glacier stone from Greenland and bleached corals from the Pacific Ocean. Suzanne Matale, a cleric from Zambia, held up a dried-up cob of corn.

“Many people have already perished as a result of droughts, floods and desertification brought about by climate change,” Matale said.

After the service, the church bells sounded 350 times in a campaign to draw attention to global warming.

Pact criticised

Many scientists say 350 parts per million is the upper level of what is considered a safe concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The European Union, Japan and Australia joined the US on Saturday in criticising the draft global warming pact that says major developing nations must rein-in greenhouse gases, but only if they have outside financing.

Rich nations want developing nations to limit emissions, with or without financial help.

Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, said his country – the world’s fifth worst greenhouse gas polluter – will not offer more than its current pledge to slow its growth rate of emissions.

It has offered to cut greenhouse gases measured against production by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020.

China has made voluntary commitments to rein-in its carbon emissions, but does not want to be bound by international law to do so.

Source: News Agencies