Climate Justice Now: Time is running out

Activists from around the world deliver urgent message in dying hours of COP17

by Tim McSorley

On Friday night, in what we all assumed to be the final hours of COP17, Climate Justice now held a press conference to give their assessment of where the negotations were at and what was needed in the final hours.

The setting was grim. While there was still the possibility of an agreement, it looked more and more like one that would make the Kyoto protocol - which was already severely flawed to begin with - even worse.

The press confernce brought together some of the most outspoken and articulate critics from the past two weeks from around the world. Touching on a range of issues - from the dangers of tying climate change solutions to for-profit ventures, to the obstruction of the US, to the dangers of leaving Durban with an empty shell of a deal - they were all tied together by a similar message: time is running out.

For Africa and most island nations, waiting another year - or another nine, if a deal is pushed to 2020, would be a death sentence not just for those countries (many of which face the possibility of sinking or becoming uninhabitable) but for millions of people facing starvation and extreme weather patterns.

While over the past few hours (from 6pm Friday to 4:30pm today) the negotiations are ongoing and messages keep changing on what a potential agreement could look like, none of the scenarios envisioned are any closer to what climate justice acitivists are saying must be done.

To listen to the entire conference, click above, or to listen to specific sections, click below

Pablo Solon: Kyoto Protocol to become a zombie

Lidy Nacpil: More markets, more profits from the suffering of people, if Green Climate Fund focusses on private sector

Silvia Ribeiro: Inclusion of soil, agriculture in carbon markets would be devastating

Ahmina Maxey: US must take action, because our communities are dying

Niimmo Bassey: Delegates must not pass a "death sentence on Africa"

Questions: CJN! members on carbon markets, delegate walk-outs and organizing back home

Question: What do we do now?

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