Protests mark the start of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Posnan (Poland)

Den­mark: Kli­maX rocks the COP15 sum­mit site

Activists from the copen­hagen based cli­mate activist group Kli­maX climbed onto the front of the con­fer­ence site Bel­la Cen­tret and threw out ban­ners. The site is sym­bol­ic in the way that its the actu­al site of the COP15 sum­mit excact­ly one year from now.

“We need a humane solu­tion to the cli­mate cri­sis.” Says Sini Øster­gaard from Kli­maX “We can­not stand by and watch while the rich coun­tries buy CO2 quo­tas from the poor coun­tries. We have take action now.”

The activists brought ban­ners, music, cook­ies and tea while the secu­ri­ty peo­ple and diplo­mats attend­ing a con­fer­ence watched the fun.

“The clock is tick­ing and time has run out. We have to face the con­se­quences of our over-con­sump­tion in the west now.” says Thor from Kli­maX.

The police arrived but did­n’t both­er any­one. The activists promis­es that they’ll con­tin­ue their actions in the run-up to and under the cli­mate sum­mit. Already oth­er actions are brew­ing for the ime­di­ate future.

The inter­na­tion­al mobi­liza­tion for action at the cli­mate sum­mit:
http://climateaction09.org/

Kli­maX — Copen­hagen:
http://klimax2009.org

Video from a coor­po­rate news­pa­per (ignore lame com­er­cials):
http://ekstrabladet.tv/nyheder/indland/article1091836.ece

Kli­maX — Copen­hagen
international@klimax2009.org
http://www.climateaction09.org

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USA: Mon­day Dec. 1

Cli­mate Activists Invade DC Offices of Envi­ron­men­tal Defense, Daugh­ter
of ED Founder Accus­es Group of Push­ing False Solu­tions to Cli­mate Change

Off-site Media Con­tact: Matt Wal­lace, Ris­ing Tide North Amer­i­ca,
828–280-3462
On-site Con­tact: Dr. Rachel Smolk­er, Glob­al Jus­tice Ecol­o­gy Project
802–735-7794

***high res­o­lu­tion pho­tos avail­able soon at:
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org***

Wash­ing­ton, DC-As the UN Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change opened today in Poz­nan, Poland, grass­roots cli­mate activists took over the Wash­ing­ton DC office of Envi­ron­men­tal Defense. The activists stat­ed that they had tar­get­ed ED, one of the largest envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions in the world, because of the orga­ni­za­tion’s key role in pro­mot­ing the dis­cred­it­ed approach of car­bon trad­ing as a solu­tion to cli­mate change.

Dr. Rachel Smolk­er of Glob­al Jus­tice Ecol­o­gy Project and Glob­al For­est Coali­tion read a state­ment, which said in part, “My father was one of the founders of this orga­ni­za­tion, which sad­ly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto Pro­to­col, the Euro­pean Emis­sions Trad­ing Scheme and vir­tu­al­ly every oth­er ini­tia­tive for reduc­ing emis­sions have adopt­ed their mar­ket approach­es. So far they have utter­ly failed, serv­ing only to pro­vide huge prof­its to the world’s most pol­lut­ing indus­tries. Instead of pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment, ED now seems pri­mar­i­ly con­cerned with pro­tect­ing cor­po­rate bot­tom lines. I can hear my father rolling over in his grave.”

The activists rearranged fur­ni­ture in the office, illus­trat­ing how mar­ket­ing car­bon is “like rear­rang­ing the deck chairs on the Titan­ic.” Oth­ers held signs read­ing “Keep the cap, ditch the trade” and “Car­bon trad­ing is an envi­ron­men­tal offense.”

Leo Cer­da, an indige­nous activist with Ris­ing Tide Ecuador said, “ED wants to turn the atmos­phere and forests into pri­vate prop­er­ty, and then give it away to the most pol­lut­ing indus­tries in the form of pol­lu­tion allowances that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an inef­fec­tive way to con­trol emis­sions, it is also a dis­as­ter for the poor and indige­nous peo­ples who are not par­ty to these mar­kets and are most impact­ed by cli­mate change.”

ED has been key in estab­lish­ing the U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship, a busi­ness con­sor­tium advo­cat­ing for a cap and trade sys­tem with extreme­ly weak emis­sions reduc­tions. US CAP allows pol­luters like Duke Ener­gy, Shell, BP, DuPont, and Dow Chem­i­cal to claim they are green while con­tin­u­ing with busi­ness as usu­al. In recog­ni­tion, activists award­ed ED the “Cor­po­rate Green­wash Award,” a three foot tall green paint­brush. “We think this award is appro­pri­ate since Envi­ron­men­tal Defense spends more time paint­ing pol­luters green than actu­al­ly defend­ing the envi­ron­ment,” said Matt Wal­lace of Ris­ing Tide North Amer­i­ca.

Oppo­si­tion to car­bon trad­ing is grow­ing as it becomes appar­ent that mar­ket based schemes do lit­tle to fight cli­mate change while help­ing cor­po­ra­tions rake in prof­its. Ear­li­er this year, over 50 groups came togeth­er in the US to denounce car­bon trad­ing in a Dec­la­ra­tion Against the Use of Car­bon Trad­ing Schemes to Address Cli­mate Change. Glob­al­ly, hun­dreds of envi­ron­men­tal, social jus­tice, and indige­nous groups have come togeth­er to oppose such mar­ket based ini­tia­tives as inher­ent­ly unsus­tain­able and inef­fec­tive in cre­at­ing a just tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fuels.

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Aus­tralia: Coal-fired pow­er sta­tion block­ade on the eve of inter­na­tion­al cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions

Novem­ber 27, 2008: This morn­ing, four peo­ple entered the Mun­morah Coal-Fired Pow­er Sta­tion on the NSW Cen­tral Coast, attach­ing them­selves to con­vey­or belts car­ry­ing coal.

Spokesper­son Ann-Marie Rohlfs says “In two days, the Rudd Gov­ern­ment will go to the Unit­ed Nations cli­mate change meet­ing in Poland. Instead of show­ing lead­er­ship, they are set to announce weak and inef­fec­tive domes­tic emis­sions reduc­tion tar­gets…”
“With the upcom­ing release of the Cli­mate White Paper, the Rudd Gov­ern­ment will hand tens of bil­lions of dol­lars in com­pen­sa­tion and free per­mits to pol­lut­ing indus­tries. Pub­lic mon­ey would be bet­ter spent invest­ing in a green renew­able future for Aus­tralia.”

Spokesper­son Nicky Ison says, “This week we wit­nessed the clo­sure of the BP solar plant in Home­bush Bay. Aus­tralia is miss­ing out on tens of thou­sands of new jobs by con­tin­u­ing to prop up the coal indus­try and pre­vent­ing the tran­si­tion to a renew­able ener­gy econ­o­my.”

In Sep­tem­ber, Nobel Prize Win­ner Al Gore said “I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civ­il dis­obe­di­ence to pre­vent the con­struc­tion of new coal plants.”

We are tak­ing him at his word.

Today’s block­ade at the Mun­morah Pow­er Sta­tion is part of a huge com­mu­ni­ty effort to kick Australia’s coal habit.

“We are fac­ing a cli­mate emer­gency, but our emis­sions are still ris­ing. We call on the Rudd Gov­ern­ment to ensure 2010 is the year Australia’s green­house emis­sions peak and begin to rapid­ly decline.

“If half of the homes in NSW had solar hot water sys­tems, there would be no need for Mun­morah Pow­er Sta­tion. We would save 1.5 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 annu­al­ly. As the old­est pow­er sta­tion in NSW, Mun­morah Pow­er sta­tion must be the first to go in the new green econ­o­my.”

For fur­ther com­ment:
Hol­ly Creenaune- 0417 682 541
Ann-Marie Rohlfs – 0406 021 920
Nicky Ison – 0423 717 567
For high res­o­lu­tions pho­tos and video footage, con­tact Nicky Ison on 0423 717 567