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Reclaim Power day at the UN ... and NGOs get kicked out

Submitted by diana on

Reclaim Power day at the UN ... and NGOs get kicked out
English

Today was "Reclaim Power" day, a collaborative adventure with activists from Climate Justice Now and Climate Justice Action that had been many months (years?) in the making.   There were demonstrators from the outside -- the thousands of activists who have no accreditation to get into the Bella Centre where the talks are being held, and those who had been working the process inside -- lobbying, analyzing, holding press conferences and such. The point was to hold a people's assembly on climate change when talks failed to deliver.   And they are failing to deliver big time.

Is technology transfer for Northern businesses or Southern countries?

Submitted by diana on

Is technology transfer for Northern businesses or Southern countries?
English

I am still in the Bella Centre, still tracking technology negotiations.  That means I have a magical "secondary pass" unlike thousands of other NGOs who cannot get into the building today. Technology is supposed to be the "easy issue", on which there will possibly be an agreement, evoked by both the Danish Presidency and the UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer, as the most rapidly progressing item.

After the demo ... and tangling with the Royal Society

Submitted by diana on

After the demo ... and tangling with the Royal Society
English

So much has happened in the past three days it is has been impossible to blog.  We have been trying to lobby for precaution and assessment on technology, trying to talk to the press about our issues, attending side events, organizing our own workshops, meeting old and new friends and allies and basically working from early morning until late at night, like virtually everyone else here.

Press Release: LOOK BEFORE LEAPING!

Submitted by ETC Staff on

NEGOTIATORS warned to LOOK BEFORE LEAPING! Civil Society Alarmed at Climate Technology Quick Fixes in Copenhagen

Over 160 civil society groups, including social movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), released a joint declaration on technology: “Let's Look Before We Leap!”. The declaration alerts governments to the absence of any precautionary environmental and social assessment mechanisms in the draft Copenhagen agreement on technology, and claims that the current approach poses grave threats to human health, human rights, rural livelihoods, diverse ecosystems and climate stability.

 

Media Advisory

Submitted by ETC Staff on

On Behalf Of Ad Hoc Coalition: Let's Look Before We Leap!

An international group of more than 150 civil society groups from 36 countries will release a joint declaration calling upon governments in Copenhagen to revamp the draft text on technology transfer, to ensure that the precautionary principle is respected and that high-risk and unproven climate “techno-fixes” are not allowed to put the world at risk.

 

 

Leaving for Copenhagen - yikes

Submitted by diana on

Leaving for Copenhagen - yikes
English

It is the mad dash for Copenhagen.

I am leaving Montreal for the international summit tomorrow although the conference actually got underway today.  In between urgent emails over the weekend I found the time to take my ten year old daughter and two of her friends to see A Christmas Carol, a Geordie Theatre production of the Dickens classic.   The play was great but it was hard to keep my mind off what was going on in Copenhagen -- plus Scrooge kept reminding me of Stephen Harper.

Time’s Up

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Climate Justice Now! Network Denounces False Climate Solutions in Barcelona

BARCELONA – The international civil society network Climate Justice Now! deplores the downplaying of expectations for the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Barcelona by industrialized countries, UNFCCC officials and the host of the Copenhagen Summit.  On the eve of Copenhagen, there is still no real progress on targets, a naïve and dangerous reliance on market mechanisms, no commitment to human rights, and a frightening context in which some countries are beginning to talk seriously about dangerous climate techno-fixes.

The Royal Society’s Report on Geoengineering the Climate: Geoengineering or Geopiracy?

Submitted by ETC Staff on

With the Royal Society’s President, Lord Martin Rees, presiding and James Lovelock, the father of the Gaia Hypothesis, commenting, the release of the Society’s report[1] outlining the possibilities for geoengineering the world out of the climate crisis could seem the very embodiment of the precautionary principle. In his 2004 book, Our Final Century, it was Lord Rees after all who warned us that technological hubris could obliterate a million lives through “bio error or bioterror” before 2020. He is a cautious man not disposed to put faith in technological silver bullets. Likewise, Dr. Lovelock has been outspoken in his alarm over the impending climate chaos – edging toward geoengineering, but equally perturbed by the “Kafkaesque” prospects of scientists and governments trying to rejig the planetary thermostat.

UK Royal Society on Geoengineering: The Emperor's New Climate?

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Science Fictions: UK's Royal Society to issue major report on geoengineering; ban real-world experiments, says ETC Group

The oldest scientific academy in the world, the UK’s Royal Society, will release its long-awaited report on geoengineering September 1st 2009 in London. The report, drafted by a panel dominated by geoengineering enthusiasts, is widely expected to recommend that the government support more research and perhaps even real-world experimentation of these controversial new technologies that intentionally manipulate the earth’s climate on a large scale with the aim of lessening the effects of climate change.

“Geoengineering is a bad idea, and, unfortunately, it may transform Lord Rees’s book from musings to memoir,” says Diana Bronson, researcher for the international technology watchdog ETC Group, referring to the Royal Society President’s 2004 book, Our Final Century, which suggested that humans may not live to see the end of the 21st century.

Biomass Power Grab Highlighted as Biotech Industry Meets in Montreal

Submitted by ETC Group on

News Release by Biofuelwatch / ETC Group / Greenpeace

Montreal -  As hundreds of delegates gathered for the Sixth Annual Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing at Palais des congrès in Old Montreal, a group of NGOs held an early morning press conference across the street.

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