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Politicians, have you done your homework? Politicians must try harder to find just solutions to the climate crisis Bonn, Germany, June 5 – On World Environment Day, leaders of industrialised nations are criticised for failing to do their homework on climate change. At the end of the first week of the UNFCCC climate conference, 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 were 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.
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 have any hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change. Rich countries have to live up their historical responsibilities and act now for climate justice.”
Friends of the Earth International also remains critical of the undue influence of the private sector and the World Bank in the UN climate negotiations, which must remain the domain of governments and civil society. Governments have the responsibility to ensure that people and the planet are protected from climate change.
Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment, |
