Many NGOs and civil society to be excluded from COP15

Let the madness begin...

Due to conference organizers accrediting more people than the actual conference centre can hold safely, a second accreditation system is being put into effect this week as world leaders arrive in Copenhagen.

The numbers circulating around is that the conference centre can safely hold 15,000 people, and the number of people accredited (including negotiators, party and government delegations, NGOs, media) is roughly 30,000-40,000.

Therefore the conference is instilling a secondary badge system: the media personnel has already been capped at 5,000 even before the conference, and now NGOs and civil society groups will have limited access to the conference centre, and may even be completely shut out between Thursday-Saturday.

That would essentially mean that many groups representing diverse voices such as youth, indigenous groups, universities, and regional and global representation, will literally be watching from the outside peering in as world leaders decide the fate of the planet...

When pressed this morning about how civil society members can still be included in the negotiating process and to ensure transparency to the official Canadian delegation, Michael Martin just replied "we will keep holding these meetings."I s this an effective way to hash out a just and equitable global framework to prevent climate change if no one can even show up?