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25 november 2000
hot air!
two weeks of talk: us ensures no
result
Two weeks ago the President of the
Conference Jan Pronk warned the politicians
of the public outrage that would result if
they left the Hague with no deal to fight
climate change. After two weeks of waffle,
that is exactly what has happened. Nothing
effective has been achieved. Man-made climate
change will continue to get worse. People all
over the planet will lose lives, homes and
jobs as a result.
Who is to blame for this fiasco:
Blame the United States and its supporters
in the ironically named "umbrella" group
(Canada, Japan, Australia, etc) which has
fought tooth and nail to exploit every
loophole in the Kyoto Treaty. The group
demanded a giant "free gift" of existing
forests and farmlands to count towards their
Kyoto targets. They wanted unlimited hot air
trading with Russia and the Ukraine.
Blame some of the world's largest
companies, including Exxon (which still
denies that climate change is even
happening), Texaco and DuPont. They have
tried to exploit the talks to create huge new
market in carbon trading, while using the
power of their political money to block
effective action against climate change in
the US Congress. The Senators who came to the
Hague to boast that they would do the bidding
of these companies have betrayed their
electors, and their over-riding duty as
politicians for the safety of their citizens
and the planet.
At the start of the Conference, Friends of
the Earth International built a dike as a
symbol of hope for the success of the talks.
A sandbag from the dike was taken inside by
Minister Pronk to be present throughout the
talks. The bag sat silently, while the
politicians talked. But in the end, the bag
did the better job. COME TO THE LAST DIKE
ACTION OF THE CONFERENCE. THE DIKE WAS A
SYMBOL OF HOPE FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE TALKS.
NOW, IT WILL BECOME A MONUMENT TO ITS
FAILURE: Meet 30 minutes after the conclusion
of the talks at the front of the Conference
Centre.
Commenting, FOEI Vice Chair Tony Juniper
said:
"The failure of these talks is a disaster
for us all. No words can truly express our
anger at what has happened here, or our
sadness for the victims of the climate change
that is to come. The world will pay the price
in tears. We will not forget or forgive those
who wrecked these talks, and put our planet
in further danger. We will demand that those
Governments who back the Kyoto Treaty
continue their programmes of action to fight
climate change. And we will work to see that
those Governments and politicians who
betrayed it pay for their behaviour".
CONTACT: Ian Willmore 0044 7887 641344
(FOEI)
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