Press Release

THOUSANDS AT HAGUE CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS!

Dike Built Around World Leaders!
5,000 people filled 50,000 sandbags at the UN climate change negotiations

The 500 metre long and 1.5 metre high dike will stay throughout the conference to remind UN delegates that citizens from around the world demand that the negotiations lead to real action to cut greenhouse gases and fight climate change.

Klaus Töpfer, the head of the UN Environment Programme, and Jan Pronk, the chair of the UN climate negotiations joined participants from Chile to the Czech Republic in building the dike. Banners, flags and messages from groups and individuals from over 50 countries decorate the dike highlighting issues such as the principle of North - South equity and the campaign against the inclusion of nuclear power in the treaty.

Wijnand Duyvendak, director of Milieudefensie (FoE Netherlands), outlined the key demands of the dike protesters - that the Kyoto Protocol should address global warming through real and permanent reductions of CO2 emissions, rather than the rag-bag of loopholes, get-out clauses and compromises that currently threaten the credibility of the treaty.

Ricardo Navarro, Chair of Friends of the Earth International said: "The politicans inside the conference centre must listen to the citizens outside who elected them. This dike is a symbol of the need for a Kyoto Protocol that truly cuts greenhouse gas emissions and is just to countries of the South as well as the North."

The dike is done pictures are available here.

Friends of the Earth contacts:

Now in The Hague at the COP6 Conference:
Ian Willmore at 0044 7887 641344 (press officer)
Roda Verheyen at 0044 7128 43216 (climate expert)