Durban - Inspired by the Occupy Wall St. movement,
protesters calling for "climate justice" are set to gather on Monday
at the opening of UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, organisers say.
"A meeting at the 'Speaker's Corner' will be called, an
assembly," Patrick Bond, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in
Durban, told AFP, referring to a spot near the venue of the 17th Conference of
the Parties (COP17) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).
"Negotiations have begun with the city on an authorised
protest space," said Bond, who is associated with the largely youth-driven
initiative.
A website dedicated to "Occupy COP17" echoed the
frustration of many poorer nations already facing climate impacts with the slow
pace and low ambition of the talks.
"Inside their assembly and inside their declarations
the needs of the 99% are not being heard," reads a declaration on a the
site.
"Private corporations are occupying our seats in the UN
climate talks and governments corrupted by corporate influence are claiming to
represent our needs."
On Friday, South Africa's police minister said his country
would deploy 2 500 officers to the UN climate talks starting this week.
"Police will not tolerate criminal acts that are
disguised as demonstrations, which in some cases include destruction of
property and intimidations," said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
The government has given the nod to a civil society march
next Saturday, but the minister made no mention of the Occupy event.
The possibility of an "Occupy COP17" protest was
raised earlier this month by former Costa Rican president Jose Maria Figueres
at the Climate Vulnerable Forum in Bangladesh.
"With respect to climate maybe we need an Occupy
Durban," he told OneWorld TV.
Such a action could take the form of "a sit-in by the
delegations of those countries that are most affected by climate change,"
he said.
Some climate-vulnerable states have slammed recent proposals
from wealthy nations that a legally-binding climate pact can wait until the end
of this decade.
Such proposals are "both environmentally reckless and
politically irresponsible," Joseph Gilbert, Grenada's environment
minister, said several weeks ago on behalf of the 42-nation Association of
Small Island States (AOSIS).