200 climate protesters held over illegal march - Summary

Sun, 13 Dec 2009

Copenhagen - Danish police apprehended more than 200 activists Sunday for holding a peaceful but unauthorized protest in central Copenhagen against the United Nations' climate change conference. Described by one officer as "hardcore" protesters, the demonstrators were blocked before they could reach the corporate headquarters of Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, TV2 news reported.

"Hit the production" was one of their slogans.

Eight of the detainees were expected to be charged with the possession of stones and other potential weapons, illegal drugs and violence. The rest were expected to be released during the course of the day, daily Politiken reported on its website.

Sunday's clampdown came a day after police arrested nearly 1,000 protesters during a huge demonstration in the Danish capital attended by tens of thousands of people. All but a handful of them had been released by Sunday morning.

Denmark's centre-right government has been criticized over the adoption of new rules prior to the opening of the conference raising the amount of time that the police can detain people without charge from six to 12 hours.

With the conference reaching the mid-way stage Sunday, negotiators took a day's rest as some 50 environment ministers from all continents prepared to work on a new compromise aimed at preventing average global temperatures from rising above two degrees centigrade against pre-industrial levels.

The latest texts drafted by the conferences' organizers have been dismissed as inadequate by European Union officials.

"It is quite clear that these texts need a lot of improvements. They are not adequate, because as they stand they would not deliver (emissions) reductions to keep temperature change below 2 degrees," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said Saturday.

The EU wants to gain influence over the proceedings by offering poorer states funding if they sign up to a deal. On Friday, EU leaders at a summit in Brussels pledged to donate 2.4 billion euros (3.5 billion dollars) a year over the next three years to help developing states fight climate change as part of that goal.

"We now also call upon other parties to deliver fast-start money so that we can make sure that we are able to deliver in 2010-12," said Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren.

Sweden currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

EU leaders plan to hold an informal summit in Copenhagen on Thursday, a day before the final day of the UN conference, which is to be attended by more than 110 heads of state and government from around the globe.