DON'T SCREW UP THE CLIMATE!

Friends of the Earth International ‘Save the Climate Treaty’ Action Day Oct. 5th!

Today [1], as ministers from around the world meet in The Netherlands to prepare for the last call Kyoto Protocol negotiations in November, Friends of the Earth groups are making a world-wide Action Day to emphasize that this is the last call to prevent a global climate catastrophe.

Friends of the Earth groups including Australia, Paraguay, Scotland and the USA participate in today’s international ‘Save The Climate Treaty’ Action Day.

Friends of the Earth Italy have made a Scuba-Diver-Parade in Venice, the beautiful city which rising sea levels could send underwater. In Piazza San Marco, a Amici della Terra (FoE Italy) in flippers & goggles have demonstrated through the main square with banners indicating that this could well be the required attire for tourists in Venice within a few decades.

Friends of the Earth Netherlands made an action outside the current meeting [pictures here]. Activists kidnapped the famous statue of Hans Brinker, the child who saved Holland from flooding by putting his finger into a dike. The figure of Hans Brinker was recruited to help flood the conference with a water cannon as a stunt to draw attention to what is actually an increasingly serious issue – the unwillingness of our governments to face up to global warming and take effective action.

Presently, the outlook for The Hague meetings is bad – recent meetings in Lyon failed to make any progress. The Dutch Minister for Environment and Chair of the COP6 meetings admitted himself that ‘nothing had been achieved in Lyon’.

Friends of the Earth has published a new briefing, available on-line (download), detailing extreme weather events which have occurred just in the last three months. The human, environmental and economic cost of these disasters testifies to the urgency which makes the Kyoto Protocol discussions so important.

Dr. Martin Rocholl from Friends of the Earth Europe: “This Action Day is essentially citizens from around the globe asking their Governments to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol results in real emissions reductions through the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures taken at home. The current efforts to include nuclear power and a lax definition of sinks is unacceptable. The Treaty is being weakened by loopholes and get-out clauses. The EU must present a coherent and progressive position – this is currently not the case. Governments have got to wake up. “

Friends of the Earth, the world’s largest environmental grass-roots network with member groups in 65 countries, will also be at The Hague. Our climate change experts will be in the conference talking to delegates and on November 18th we will build a huge dike around the conference centre with thousands of volunteers as a symbolic action.

Footnotes

[1] 35 Environment Ministers representing the major groups of nations gather for an informal session in Muyden, Netherlands - under the chairmanship of Dutch Minister Jan Pronk, who will chair the COP6 in The Hague from 13 to 24 November. The Community will be represented by the French Presidency of the EU Council, the European Commission and three Ministers Trittin (Germany), Meacher (UK) and Larson (Sweden).

Friends of the Earth contacts:

Howard Mollett (Press contact): +32-2-5420189
Roda Verheyen (Climate contact): +44-207-5661723

| download extreme weather briefing (RTF)
| download extreme weather briefing (PDF)
| background on extreme weather events