Youth

Youth activists were beaten by police this morning in Copenhagen after they marched out of the Bella Center, shouting "Reclaim power!" and "Climate justice now!"

During the second week of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, the number of activists allowed to attend the talks has been drastically reduced. By Friday, when President Obama arrives, the number of nongovernmental "observers," the UN group to which most of the activists belong, will be reduced to just 90.

Shaun McCanna, for the Pulitzer Center

Youth activists were beaten by police this morning in Copenhagen after they marched out of the Bella Center, shouting "Reclaim power!" and "Climate justice now!"

During the second week of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, the number of activists allowed to attend the talks has been drastically reduced. By Friday, when President Obama arrives, the number of nongovernmental "observers," the UN group to which most of the activists belong, will be reduced to just 90.

Saturday's mass march to the Bella Center, where climate talks are ongoing, was boisterous and colorful, but largely peaceful.

I expect that the tone of the demonstrations will shift in the next week as climate activists make a last-ditch push for a strong treaty. Climate Justice Action, an anti-corporate network, is calling on activists to disrupt the negotiations at the Bella Center next Wednesday and to transform it into an assembly open to all:

In Afghanistan, the number of kids in school has grown more than six times since the Taliban were in power. But millions of children still wait, and classrooms and qualified teachers are lacking.

An American activists talks about youth engagement at the Copenhagen climate talks in Denmark.

Pulitzer Center journalist Steve Sapienza's, "Bangladesh reels from the impact of climate change," video airs 12/8, on Worldfocus.

Where and when to watch Worldfocus on TV

Last year, rising tides destroyed more than 300 schools in Bangladesh leaving children with no place to learn. In response to the worsening floods, social entrepreneur Mohammed Rezwan created 28 "school boats" to bring school to Bangladeshi children. Rezwan, NGOs and governments in poorer countries are trying to address the impacts of climate change now.

As the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change began today, a group of leading Bangladeshi members of parliament and internationally renowned climate change experts held a press conference in Copenhagen's Bella Center to raise awareness of their country's vulnerability to global warming, and its readiness to put adaptation funding to immediate use.

Overwhelming global interest in COP15 ("Convention of Parties") led to a few glitches as conference attendees descended on Copenhagen over the weekend of Dec. 5-6. On Dec. 1 the organizers announced they were no longer accepting applications from media to attend, having already reached a maximum of 5,000 (later it was announced this was cut to 3500). 34,000 people in all were attempting to participate in the conference, but the Bella Center, a vast, somewhat makeshift conference complex just outside of Copenhagen, has a capacity of 15,000.

Pulitzer Center Student Fellow and environmental journalist Sara Peach will be traveling to Copenhagen in December, 2009 to cover the COP15 UN climate negotiations.