Tony Andersen - What is Klimaforum09 or ClimateForum09?

Tony Andersen - founder of Climateforum09.org

This is the first part of a long interview we made with Tony Andersen, founder and organiser of Klimaforum09 . Nicholas Roberts of Permaculture TV asks Tony the simple question “What is Klimaforum09 (Climateforum09)?

Organiser: “We just had to do something ourselves”

The inspiration for Klimaforum09 originated in Brazil. It has taken two years to develop the idea to its current stage: The establishment of an alternative climate summit.

It is because of the collaborative efforts of many individuals that, parallel to the climate summit in December, Copenhagen will be providing a platform for its residents and the many non-accredited foreign grassroots activists and NGOs visiting the city.

However, Tony Andersen, the former architect and long-time member of the international permaculture network, has played a vital role in the process. He helped come up with the idea and send out the first invitations. He was also responsible for the initial, probing contact with the Danish authorities, the hosts of the fifteenth climate summit.

• The idea came from an international permaculture conference held in Brazil in 2007. We heard reports from Alaska, Australia, Africa, and Greenland that the ecological collapse had already begun. At the same time, we learned that Copenhagen would be hosting COP15, the climate summit at which a replacement would be negotiated for the Kyoto Agreement, which expires in 2012.
• As the Danish representative, I offered to find out whether it would be possible to stage an alternative climate summit. To be blunt, folks doubted that the politicians would make the necessary decisions. The feeling was that we just had to do something ourselves

Source: Organiser: “We just had to do something ourselves”, Climateforum09.org

• Climateforum09 English website | Klimaforum09 Danish website
• Klimaforum09 Program DRAFT Print Version
• Klimaforum09 Program DRAFT Online Version