Friends of the Earth denied access to Bella Center on Wednesday @ COP15

I'm still catching up on COP15 coverage so this is a little belated, but still relevant.

Access to the Bella Center continues to grow more restrictive as more and more heads of state arrive @ COP15, many with large delegations. This has forced many observers who had previously had access to the Bella Center out of the building.

Yet the situation with Friends of the Earth still seems odd -

According to this New York Times article, when Friends of the Earth's 90-member delegation showed up at the Bella Center on Wednesday morning and presented their delegate badges to security to gain entrance to the building, the delegates found that their badges were no longer valid, and were therefore denied entry to the Bella Center.


photo: Friends of the Earth delegates @ Bella Center entrance

Here's a report of the situation from Friends of the Earth staff member Nick Berning that I received very early this morning PST:

Just managed to get internet access again via a borrowed laptop now.

We've been sitting here for two hours now, about 50 Friends of the Earth representatives, all with accreditation and secondary badges, who have been refused admission to the conference. We are sitting in the registration area, between the registration/credentials desks and the photo desks.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer came out and spoke to us awhile ago and said he wanted to resolve the situation. A few of our representatives have gone to talk to UN officials while we sit here, but our lack of access remains unresolved.

Initially there were a lot of reporters, but the UN has now cordoned us off and closed access to media.

The UN still has yet to give us a coherent reason for our having been denied access. We have been given different explanations by different officials: (1) we are a security threat or (2) there was no more room inside. It's hard to see how the "no room" explanation makes sense, as they continued to allow other NGO observers to enter even as we were denied access. And as for the security threat, we're a bunch of policy wonks and youth activists who have been participating in the negotiations every day for two weeks.

We've had both a member of the Norweigan and a member of the Canadian parliament come speak to us to lend us their support while we've been sitting here.

One of the key roles Friends of the Earth has played at the conference has been to advocate for climate justice and the interests of the poor countries that have done the least to cause the climate crisis but will feel some of its strongest impacts. Negotiators from those countries are tremendously under-resourced here. For example, I've worked with negotiators who have no media officers (I do media work) to help them communicate their position. They are totally outgunned by the massive delegations of the rich countries, and now thanks to the UN's decision to exclude us, they will have even less support inside the Bella Center to fight for a fair agreement. It's really shameful.

Also --

Re the entry way more generally: appears that access to the conference has been almost completely shut down. We have a very clear view of the front doors and the security area, and people come through only very sporadically.'

Best,
Nick

Nick suggested this video recap of the day's events as well, prepared by Friends of the Earth.

Again according to the New York Times article, Yvo De Boer, executive director of the U.N.F.C.C.C., eventually emerged to talk to the spurned delegates. Against an angry chorus of “Open the Door, De Boer!,” he explained somewhat testily that the United Nations had “no other option but to restrict” admissions.

Ultimately he offered the organization 12 passes to the conference, a number that the group deemed unacceptable. At about 1 p.m. they decided to leave, meaning that one of the worlds largest environment groups is no longer at the meetings.