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monday, 12 april
2001
world tells bush: wake up to climate
change
100,000+ e-protests to white ouse
Since Bush shocked the international
community with his intent to trash the UN
treaty to combat climate change, over 100,000
e-mail protests have flooded the White House.
The e-campaign initiated by Friends of the
Earth has inspired people all over the
planet, from the Texas to Turkey, to send a
message to the President of the United States
of America: George W. Bush: donít wreck the
Kyoto Protocol ñ the only international
treaty capable of addressing climate change.
The White House server has reportedly
crashed five times in the past week and
Friends of the Earthís e-mail server is close
to meltdown as FOE receives copies of all
messages. At peak times, a new e-protest
arrives at the White House every second !
Since the start of the action last Thursday
(March 29), more than 100,000 people from all
continents participated by Wednesday April
11th and the numbers now rise by ten thousand
/ day.
When Friends of the Earth contacted the
White House for a statement on the mass
protest we were connected to five different
stammering spokesmen, none of them willing to
spin a line for the President.
Next week, negotiators will meet in New
York [1] and discuss a proposal for how the
negotiations will proceed tabled by Jan
Pronk, Dutch Environment Minister and Chair
of the UN climate talks.
Roger Higman, senior climate campaigner at
Friends of the Earth England, Wales &
Northern Ireland:
"The tens of thousands of FLOOD BUSH
e-protests jamming the White House server are
a wake-up call to politicians: act now, not
later. The test of our governmentsí
environmental integrity is clear: the Kyoto
Protocol must be strengthened, ratified and
then implemented before the 2002 deadline -
with or without the US. We cannot afford to
waste anymore time ñ the climate will not
wait.î
Roda Verheyen, climate campaigner at
Friends of the Earth Europe:
ìThe US has consistently lobbied for weaker
Kyoto commitments through the inclusion of
absurd adopt-a-tree ësinksí proposals instead
of real CO2 emission reductions, so Bushís
rejection was just a clarification.
Negotiators must now focus on closing the
loopholes and get-out clauses that undermine
the treatyís CO2 reduction targets. The next
climate summit in July must ensure an
environmentally credible agreement, not an
agreement to do nothing. Governments must
make it very clear to the US: the Kyoto
Protocol is about globally coordinated CO2
reductions to save the climate, it is not a
forum for obstructive counter-proposals and
political lipservicing.ì
The Kyoto Protocol must ensure:
-
real reductions of fossil fuel
emissions in every industrialised
country;
-
investment in renewable energy and
energy efficiency not nuclear power,
so-called ìcarbon sinksî, large
hydroelectricity or coal projects;
-
industrialised countries make CO2
emission reductions at home;
-
funding for climate disaster
preparedness and management;
-
recognition of the inequitable use of
the worldís resources: developing countries
have a right to develop and industrialised
countries must encourage more sustainable
energy consumption.
Contacts:
On climate politics: Roda Verheyen, FoE
Climate Campaigner: 0049 179 465 2979
On the FLOOD BUSH e-mail protest: Howard
Mollett, Friends of the Earth Europe:
+32-2-5420189
FLOOD BUSH on-line:
www.foeeurope.org/climate
Notes:
[1] From 16-27 April 2001 the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
will hold its Ninth Session in New York. The
Commission was established in 1992 to ensure
effective follow-up of the Rio Earth
Summit.
[2] Next UN Conference of the Parties
(COP6bis) to the Kyoto Protocol: Bonn, 16-27
July 2001.
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