united nations
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
Jun 04, 2009
FoE campaigner calls for an end to offsetting
Tom Picken, a campaigner for Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland urges delegates at the UN climate talks in Bonn to abandon carbon offsetting and look for real long term solutions to combat climate change.
Here is an extract of the address he gave
What is the cost if you don’t achieve your task? Is it the escalating financial cost predicted?
Is it the 300,000 deaths every year, happening right now, directly the result of climate change - according to Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum?
Is it the political cost that Annex I governments will have to pay back home if they fail to set their own targets – with no-one else to point the finger at and blame?
Or, will the cost of failure be deception? Saying you will act, announcing targets, but then offset this commitment to developing countries that have disproportionately suffered the consequences of over-consumption and currently emit but a fraction of the per capita carbon of industrialised countries?
It is possible to avoid these costs getting worse, but first, this group must finish its task.
The targets submitted by Parties before this meeting are totally unacceptable.
We have clear demands. We demand an aggregate Annex I reduction of more than 40% by 2020 on the table here in Bonn. This is a simple assessment of what science and equity demands, and of what the timetable work plan demands of you.
New commitments however will only have meaning if they are actually achieved, not watered down.
Offsetting has failed – it fails the climate and it fails the people of both developed and developing countries.
Offsetting is used as an excuse for inaction in Annex I countries that carry on polluting business as usual.
Offsetting does not ensure positive sustainable development in, or sufficient financial transfers to, even big developing countries. Offsetting is not the tool for achieving financial and technology flows.
Offsetting cannot be reformed, it must not be expanded; offsetting must be scrapped once and for all.
The ultimate objective of the Convention is to avoid dangerous climate change, not avoid responsibility.
Real targets, achieved for real, now.
Tom Picken, campaigner for Friends of the Earth England, Wales, Northern Ireland in Bonn
