The Limits of Civil Society’s Participation and Influence at COP-15: A Comment on “Disenfranchisement of Countries and Civil Society at COP-15 in Copenhagen” by Ian McGregor

In McGregor’s well-written piece, he builds on my work on disenfranchisement¹ to discuss developing country and civil society participation and influence at the COP-15 negotiations in Copenhagen. Within his piece, the author challenges the claims in my recent article on civil society at COP-15 in Copenhagen.² McGregor’s argument is driven by two main points. First, he notes that countries were also disenfranchised at COP-15. Second, in contrast to the three forces that I identify as the drivers of the disenfranchisement of civil society at COP-15—“increased registration, poor planning by the Danish organizers, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), and the merging of movements”³—McGregor asserts that the forces of increased registration and the merging of movements “contributed to more effective participation and influence by civil society, particularly environmental and climate justice groups.”⁴ Regarding the first point, I agree with McGregor that many countries were disenfranchised by the policy-making process at COP-15. The author provides a reasonable account of the ways that the Copenhagen Accord was developed. However, I disagree with the claims he makes regarding civil society. In the pages that follow, I outline two main challenges to McGregor’s work.

First, both McGregor and I have noted that the first week of the negotiations, which were prior to the ministerial-level talks, did not involve any limitations to access. However, as he and I also note, access was significantly restricted during the second week of the negotiations. As I stated in my piece,⁵ after registration on Tuesday 15 December closed early leaving many registered participants waiting out in the cold, registration for NGO observers closed unexpectedly on the morning of the 16 December, the second Wednesday of the negotiations. Even though registration for these meetings usually stays open throughout the negotiations, it never opened again.

McGregor states that the closing of registration was due to fire restrictions and security concerns with world leaders being in the Bella Center. He is correct on both points. The increased registration by NGO observers to an unprecedented 20,611 individuals contributed significantly to the problems regarding fire restrictions at the conference hall. In addition, the call by climate justice groups to storm the Bella Center contributed to the access restrictions placed on NGO observers during the second week of the negotiations. It is worth restating here that a coalition of climate justice groups called for a protest with non-violent civil disobedience that aimed to get into the negotiations to “take over the conference for one day and transform it into a People’s Assembly.”⁶ This direct action took place on the same day that registration closed permanently: Wednesday, 16 December 2009. There is no question that the call for thousands of members of civil society to take over the Bella Center contributed to the “security concerns” noted in McGregor’s piece.

Since registration was unexpectedly closed to many representatives of environmental groups, businesses, and researchers who had traveled to Denmark to observe the end of the negotiations, there were more disenfranchised civil society members joining the crowds outside the conference hall: when an individual is blocked from participating, s/he may choose to employ more radical tactics. Based on conversations with researchers and representatives of NGOs staying in my hotel during the negotiations, climate justice groups successfully mobilized those who were unable to receive their credentials and those who were not allocated secondary cards to join the protests scheduled to take place around Copenhagen on 16 December.

Second, although a handful of NGO representatives were provided access to government delegations during the final days of the negotiations, most were locked out of the Bella Center altogether. McGregor refers to the differences between the final List of Participants at COP-15 versus the Provisional one (which was all that was available when my piece went to press) to show that civil society members...