2009-12-10
Copenhagen residents will play a role in identifying possible disruptions to December’s UN Climate Change Conference
Homeowners in the area near the main venue for the December climate summit and elsewhere in the city are being asked by the police to tip them off if they see anything unusual before or during the event.
About 1000 people have been identified by the police as living or working in certain areas they believe are strategic locations for identifying possible threats against delegates to the UN Climate Change Conference, being held from 7 to 18 December.
Most of those selected will receive a letter later this month, while others will be contacted in person. In addition the police will establish a hotline people call to report anything out of the ordinary.
‘People who live in the area are better than us to notice if something is different than it normally is,’ said Mogens Lauridsen of the Copenhagen Police.
Once the initial 1000 are contacted, the police are hoping that the message will spread by word of mouth to others.
The police are mostly concerned with the final days of the conference, when heads of state are expected to be on hand to sign a climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
In addition to the official summit, police will be keeping their eye on a number of unofficial and alternative climate events. As many as 50,000 people are expected to be in Copenhagen attending meetings or to demonstrate against the official UN summit.
Similar demonstrations during high-level summits in the past have gone amok, but National Police Commissioner Jens Henrik Højbjerg hopes the topic of the climate summit ‘appeals to the best in people’.
So far, police have only received requests to hold two demonstrations. More are expected, however.
One unregistered protest police will be keeping their eye on will be efforts by ‘Klima X’ (Climate X) on 16 December to occupy the summit venue Bella Center. Police say they plan to negotiate with the group about their protest.
In addition to efforts to disrupt the summit itself, police fear that terrorists may target the summit in reprisal for Denmark’s participation in military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, or in retribution for the 2005 and 2008 publication of the Mohammed cartoons.