The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.

Faced with seemingly irreconcilable positions – between developed countries who won’t change their economic model and poor countries who realise that accepting the crumbs from the table is little use when faced with environmental devastation – any facade of consensus has broken down. Looking increasingly desperate, the authorities are trying to clamp down on all criticism in the hope that that will make it go away. In fact it is making it even more vocal.

UN and Danish national flags together with the flag of the UN Climate Change Conference in front of the Bella centre. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Friends of the Earth international, Avaaz, Tck Tck Tck and other mainstream environment coalition groups were refused entry to the Copenhagen conference centre this morning without being given any reason.

Ian Plimer at the Copenhagen conference with his book Heaven and Earth. Photograph: Jens Dige/AP

A few days ago I interviewed the prominent climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer for a piece ahead of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Very little of our half-hour conversation made it into the final story but it was a revealing interview. This blog is an attempt to put some of what we talked about on the record.

It is important to do so, because the Australian mining geologist’s book Heaven and Earth – on what he calls the “missing science” of global warming – has proved extremely popular. It has been reprinted six times in the UK since its publication in March and has sold more than 30,000 copies in Australia. In July, the Spectator ran a fawning cover feature about the book under the headline “Relax: global warming is all a myth”.

As representatives of people from the developing world who are most affected by climate change, we are still fighting to ensure our voices are heard in Copenhagen. We are alarmed about the potential failure of the talks (Report, 15 December).

People in many of our countries in the global south are already experiencing the destructive effects of climate change. It is these people, who have not contaminated the planet, who hold the solutions in their hands. It is the rural farmers, indigenous, and the poor people of the world that can teach us how to sustain life on the planet through learning from and living in harmony with nature.

We urgently hope that in the few days left Copenhagen changes the status quo which continues to damage the natural world. We hope that the global north recognises its ecological debt to the world’s impoverished peoples; that it begins to repair our villages and ecosystems and reaches substantial agreements to ensure greenhouse gas emissions are curbed. Enough funds should be provided to southern countries to support this socio-environmental restoration: the climate debt to the world’s poor must be settled.

The Bella centre is a swirl of chatter, the streets of Copenhagen are a swirl of protest. Depending on what hour you listen to the news bulletin, the UN climate negotiations have “come off the rails” or are “back on track” or have “stalled” or are “moving swiftly”. Which is why the only people who really understand what’s going on may be a small crew of folks from a group of computer jockeys called Climate Interactive. Their software speaks numbers, not spin – and in the end it’s the numbers that count.