Fed Up with it all! Dressed in white shirts, NGOs and members of civil society leave the National Stadium, dropping their badges in box with plans to convene at nearby Nowy Swiat, across the Vistula River
Enough is Enough!
As business proceeds as usual inside the Plenaries and meeting rooms during the first ever Cities Dayat COP19, NGOs and civil society are staging a walkout. Dressed in white shirts reading "Polluters Talk, We Walk."
From the Presser:
“We have said we stand in solidarity with the millions impacted by Typhoon Haiyan, and with all climate impacted people. Our solidarity compels us to tell the truth… [that] The Warsaw Climate Conference, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing”.
World Wildlife Fund reports:
We have said we stand in solidarity with the millions impacted by Typhoon Haiyan, and with all climate impacted people. Our solidarity compels us to tell the truth about COP 19 – the Warsaw Climate Conference.
The Warsaw Climate Conference, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing. In fact, the actions of many rich countries here in Warsaw are directly undermining the UNFCCC itself, which is an important multilateral process that must succeed if we are to fix the global climate crisis.
The Warsaw Conference has put the interests of dirty energy industries over that of global citizens - with a “Coal & Climate Summit” being held in conjunction; corporate sponsorship from big polluters plastered all over the venue; and a Presidency (Poland) that is beholden to the coal and fracking industry. When Japan announced that it was following Canada and backtracking on emission cut commitments previously made, and Australia gave multiple signals that it was utterly unwilling to take the UN climate process seriously, the integrity of the talks was further jeopardized.
This week saw a “finance ministerial” with almost no actual finance, and loss and damage talks that have stalled because rich countries refuse to engage on the substance of an international mechanism. Warsaw has not seen any increase in emission reductions nor increased support for adaptation before 2020 – on these things it has actually taken us backward. And a clear pathway to a comprehensive and fair agreement in Paris 2015 is missing.
We as civil society are ready to engage with ministers and delegations who actually come to negotiate in good faith. But at the Warsaw Conference, rich country governments have come with nothing to offer. Many developing country governments are also struggling and failing to stand up for the needs and rights of their people. It is clear that if countries continue acting in this way, the next two days of negotiations will not deliver the climate action the world so desperately needs.
Therefore, organizations and movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks. Instead, we are now focusing on mobilizing people to push our governments to take leadership for serious climate action. We will work to transform our food and energy systems at a national and global level and rebuild a broken economic system to create a sustainable and low-carbon economy with decent jobs and livelihoods for all. And we will put pressure on everyone to do more to realize this vision.
Coming out of the Warsaw Climate Conference, it is clear that without such pressure, our governments cannot be trusted to do what the world needs. We will return with the voice of the people in Lima to hold our governments accountable to the vision of a sustainable and just future.
NGOs file past the official Plenary sessions at Warsaw Stadium
"Climate is definitely back on the agenda," writes Natan Doron of the Fabian Society in
A warning from Warsaw. "This is precisely the message being given by NGOs such as Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, 350.org, Friends of the Earth and ActionAid together with the international trade union movement as they stage a walk-out protest at the international climate negotiations in Warsaw today. This will be the first time that there has been a mass withdrawal from a COP.
Here also, is the release from the Climate Action Network:
The climate crisis is the single biggest challenge facing humanity. Carbon pollution needs to peak in the next few years otherwise we will be unable to secure a safe climate. Governments of the world are here in Warsaw this week to move forward with a global climate action plan. However, there is deep frustration amongst civil society about the lack of political will to drive the action we need to stop the climate crisis.
In the past two weeks, we have seen :
Japan roll back its climate action commitments,
some developed countries, such as a Australia, block substantive discussions around a loss and damage mechanism to help developing countries deal with devastating climate impacts
a Polish Government presidency which is focusing on its own agenda, including supporting an inappropriate coal summit,
and no indications from developed countries on how they plan to ramp up climate finance towards the $100 billion pledged by 2020
Civil society – and Climate Action Network - is a broad community, which is part of our strength because to win the fight for the climate, we need all kinds of action in all kinds of places, from our capitals to inside the international climate process. We represent people and constituencies around the world in this process. Naturally, different groups choose to express themselves in different ways.
Some members of civil society – including some of CAN's 850 members – have chosen to voluntarily withdraw from this meeting in protest against how they feel this meeting has been held hostage by fossil fuel interests. The groups withdrawing also wish to stand in solidarity with people affected by climate impacts around the world -- as does all of CAN. Hundreds of members of civil society are fasting in solidarity with Yeb Sano, the climate commissioner of the Philippines following his emotional plea for action at the start of this meeting, after Typhoon Haiyan devastated his homeland.
This decision made to leave COP19 by many of our members and friends is understandable, and we support the spirit in which it was made. However, other groups have chosen to stay inside the building to continue to advocate for important decisions which can still be made at this COP – such as taking forward a mechanism on loss and damage, a roadmap to agree the 2015 climate action deal, and a process for developed countries to put forward a clear roadmap for ramping up climate finance.
ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH Walkout include:
- Aksyon Klima Pilipinas
- ActionAid
- Bolivian Platform on Climate Change
- Construyendo Puentes (Latin America)
- Friends of the Earth (Europe)
- Greenpeace
- Ibon International
- International Trade Union Confederation
- LDC Watch
- Oxfam International
- Pan African Climate Justice Alliance
- Peoples’ Movement on Climate Change (Philippines)
- WWF.... Civil society are leaving #COP19 walking now infront the plenaries .. power to the people not the polluters #volveremos #COP19 #Warsaw #Poland
5:41 AM PT: Hear police sirens but Im inside covering the successful lauch of the clean technology
GOOD NEWS STORY OF UNFCCC, WE HAVE COME TOGETHER TO CRTEATE SOMETHING THAT IS MEANINGFUL AND PRACTICAL. A LANDMARK, A HISTORIC DAY, GREATEST CONSEQUENCES .. A PLACE WE ARE GOING TO BE FOCUSING ON PROJECTS NOT PARAGRAPHS, WATTS NOT WORDS, ADAPTION, FOR DEVELPING CTRIES WANTING TO EXPOORE THIS WILL BE THE PLACE TO GO.
GRIFF THOMPSON CTCN https://unfccc.int/...
6:22 AM PT: fabulous event right now on Cities day OH SVEN! with real promise on negotiations for national governments to look at what cities worldwide have accomplished re cutting emissions.