> FEATURES 02

Art & Activism for Climate Action

Imagination and Camp

Insurrectionary

The Laboratory of

Bristol installation view Arnolfini

Bike Bloc 2009

Gavin Grindon reports on the crisis in Copenhagen

THE RHETORIC SURROUNDING THE COP15 CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT in Copenhagen set up the city itself as a space of hope, crisis and opportunity. Between politicians, lobbyists, NGOs and activists, ‘Copenhagen’ became a byword for a decisive, city-wide public sphere to confront the challenges posed by climate change. Although there were many competing voices from developing nations and civil society, the main economic model proposed to avert the crisis was that of carbon trading – financialisation which sought to overcome the internal limits of a market by turning a crisis in its expansion (pollution, unpaid debt) into a meta-market of derivatives (carbon credits, debt trading).

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