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Jun 18, 2009
Bonn climate talks
From June 1-12 2009, delegates from 182 countries were in Bonn discussing key negotiating texts which would serve as the basis for critical climate talks in Copenhagen this December.
Whilst the Friends of the Earth International delegation were stressing to delegates inside the conference centre about the world's need for a just climate agreement in Copenhagen, outside activists from Young Friends of the Earth were making plenty of undiplomatic noise.
At the end of the first week of the conference the 50 young activists from Young Friends of the Earth Europe and Friends of the Earth International called for the leaders to be "kept behind after school" for their failure to take action to achieve fair solutions to the climate crisis.
Activists wearing masks with the faces of government leaders took their place in a classroom built outside the Maritim Hotel in Bonn. The leaders will be forced to write out that they must commit to reduce their carbon emission by at least 40% by 2020, to repay their climate debt and to promise not to invest in offsets, coal and nuclear.
Friends of the Earth International is critical of the role that industrialised countries are playing in the UN climate negotiations, by avoiding taking action at home, promoting carbon offsetting and other false solutions to the climate crisis.Claire Prizeman, a Young Friends of the Earth Europe activist said: “Rich countries must do their homework and promise to radically cut their emissions and give up on false solutions like offsetting, so-called clean coal and nuclear if we are to have any hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change. Rich countries have to live up their historical responsibilities and act now for climate justice.”
Sam Fleet, a member of the Friends of the Earth Europe communication team was at the conference with Young FoEE where he blogged about his experience. You can read his blog posts below and also watch videos and see photos of the actions that took place, including the outdoor classroom.
blog posts
Sam Fleet's post for FoEI:
- Plans are a foot
- Young FoEE, split three ways
- Like a festival without the fun
- The flood is coming...
- Have you done your homework?
- Bingo and beach parties in Bonn
- UN Secretariat 1, Greenpeace 0
- The clock is tck tck ticking
- The flood came
- Inspired, tired and on my way home
- Silence, sincerity and snacking
- Inside the Maritim bubble
- Japan - 8 percent???
- Bonn wrap up: "plugged in"
Video
Photos
