Climate summit participants are being urged not to visit prostitutes when they come to Copenhagen

Centre-left city counsellors are launching a campaign to prevent an increase in prostitution during two-week UN Climate Change Conference in the city this December.

The Social Democrat and Socialist People’s Party (SF) councillors are trying to introduce a code of ethics imploring participants at the UN Climate Change Conference not to visit prostitutes.

All participants in the conference will be contacted and encouraged to sign the code of ethics promising not to engage the services of prostitutes.

‘There is always a serious increase in prostitution during large summits. It is degrading for the women who sell their bodies and also gives a negative image of what the climate delegates are up to when they will come to the Copenhagen conference,’ SF’s Ninna Thomsen told TV2 News.

But the sexworkers’ interest organisation (SIO) said the code of ethics was unnecessary. According to its calculations, the number of clients would increase by about 0.5 percent during the conference.

‘Most of the participants will use their time to discuss the climate – not to buy sex. If they take a walk they will also see that prostitution is much less visible here than in many of the cities that they come from,’ SIO spokeswoman Susanne Møller said.