The last day of COP6.5 climate talks in Bonn was interrupted by activists protesting that the deal being signed would only serve the interests of big business and reinforce global inequality.
Plenery meeting disrupted in Bonn - carbon trading
All talk and no action..
from - www.climateconference.org
Bonn, Germany: COP6.5. Today in the final session of the latest round of climate talks, climate justice activists unfurled a banner which read “Trading in Pollution is not the Solution”. This was in response to the dependence upon market-based mechanisms in the latest agreements on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
One of the activists explained, “We are here to bring some commonsense back to these negotiations. The US pull-out made everyone so desperate to get any agreement that we’ve ended up with a deal which is a step in the wrong direction. The current loopholes will mean that the already pitiful 5.2% CO2 reductions could now only be 0.3%*. The trade in emissions lays a foundation for inaction rather than building a framework for the necessary emission reductions. This deal can only serve the interests of big business and reinforce global inequality.”
The welcome that this deal has received from media, governments and the big environmental NGOs masks the real story of the talks. The myth that any deal, no matter how weak, is a step in the right direction should be challenged.
One activist who had Article 19 of the UN Convention of Human Rights, freedom of speech, written on her naked body stated, “Not only is this treaty going nowhere for the climate, any public concern or voice about this has been completely repressed by corporate and political interests. As citizens who will be adversely affected by climate change and have not been able to participate in the decisions made about it, we have a right to be heard here and have been forced to take such drastic measures in order to do so.”
*As stated by Greenpeace in their press release on Monday 23rd July
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