Katowice COP24 Climate Change Talks: Climate Justice Speeches

The voice of good conscience speaks — will anyone in power listen?

As the name would suggest, the United Nations climate change negotiations are a conversation that takes place between States. But as members of global civil society we are given the minimal opportunity of a minute or two to share our views from the back of a plenary hall. It’s not much, but as you can see below, our groups do their best to take advantage of it.

Joint Opening Plenary, December 2nd

The Presiding Officers have noted that progress on the Paris Agreement Work Programme is insufficient, and say that Parties must soon find “landing zones” in the spirit of the Paris Agreement. We agree! Everybody agrees! But instead of compromise we’re witnessing intransigence from developed countries who are attempting to use the implementation guidelines to renegotiate the Paris Agreement.

Climate breakdown is happening in a world already broken by inequalities. We’d like to all be equal but we are in fact not. Some have more than others. They should therefore do more. The principle of differentiation is a mere recognition of this reality and must be reflected in the NDCs and transparency framework.

Some countries not only have more capacity but also bear more responsibility. Ignoring varying levels of responsibility does nothing to encourage more ambitious action. Actually, the erasure of historical responsibilities builds further inequality and injustice into future actions. We need each country to do their fair share.

Everyone says action is urgently needed to tackle climate change, but action has been urgently needed for 2 decades. In the 2012 Doha Amendment, developed countries promised to reduce their emissions at least 18% below 1990 levels by 2020. Instead, they’ve reduced emissions a mere 1.3% over the period 1990–2016. And none of them have raised their targets for pre-2020 action.

You will be judged not on what you say but on what you do. You say climate change is a serious challenge but the finance and technology you are delivering is a joke. While developing countries need $4 trillion to deliver their NDCs, developed countries promise a mere $100b per year, and in the end don’t deliver even that — the biennial assessment report shows that in the most generous analysis developed countries provided $38 billion in 2016.

We wish we had more time, but we don’t. Neither do you.

Closing of the Talanoa Dialogue preparatory phase, December 6th

My name is Jinky Esguerra from the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, a member of Climate Justice Now.

I am a Filipino and our country has been one of the most affected countries by climate change impacts for the last two decades. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, illustrates the risks and vulnerabilities that we are facing given our lack of resources and preparation for such events. Thousands of people died, lost their homes and livelihoods, and were deprived of their rights to live a decent life. This injustice has become the new normal, and it is this injustice we have to face every single day because of the climate crisis we have not caused.

Before and since the Paris Agreement, there has been insufficient progress made. We hoped the Talanoa Dialogue would see a genuine increase in targets in a way that the previous Dialogue on pre-2020 action did not, but the lack of ambition and developed countries’ avoidance of their finance and technology transfer obligations have made it yet another talk shop.

We hold strong to our position that only through climate justice can we address the climate crisis. For us it is climate justice or death.

Developed countries must drastically cut their emissions through domestic measures and fulfill their obligation to provide financing to strengthen the capacity of countries and peoples of the developing countries in dealing with the impacts of climate change and make the transformation to sustainable and equitable development.

Climate change is a battle of survival and we are losing it. Time is not on our side. All countries must contribute towards the global effort by doing their fair share. Developed countries, more than anyone, should act now and should act fast.

Closing of the Talanoa Dialogue political phase, December 12th

My name is Hellen Neima speaking on behalf of Corporate Accountability, a member of Climate Justice Now.

For more than 25 years, including this week, wise men and women have stood before us and shared with us real global impacts driven by climate change….instances of wildfires, hurricanes, floods, mud slides, heat waves etc.

So we can come here ignore all these devastating facts and propose to solve them by shifting emissions from one part of the world to another through emissions offsets. While doing so we can be accommodative to allow the multi-billion dollar companies we purport to regulate to boast about their contributions to shaping the Paris agreement.

But may we never forget who we are really accountable to. May we never forget that we are here to represent real people we know back home, people who have entrusted us with their lives and livelihoods.

I pray for our sake, for the sake of the present and future generations that we have not damned humanity by turning our eyes from these devastating facts to achieve short term profits.

Our stories here are the testimonies of people on the frontlines of the climate crises. They are not here to be exploited and put on a shelf, as part of yet another Secretariat report that fails to adequately ratchet up the ambition of NDCs.

This facilitative dialogue has been happening for a year — it was supposed to increase ambition, but where is the ambition? Where are the outcomes ?where are the tangible results for emissions reduction and real policy changes like finance.

As I finish, I would like to share with you lyrics from one of my favorite musicians, which I hope you will hold in your heart these next few days and as you lead your lives back home.

Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race. There are people dying, so if we care enough for the living, let’s make this world a better place for you and for me.

We demand real action. The time is now.

High-Level Plenary, December 12th

My name is Greta Thunberg, I am 15 years old and I’m from Sweden. I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now.

Many people say that Sweden is just a small country and it doesn’t matter what we do. But I’ve learnt that no one is too small to make a difference. And if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school — then imagine what we all could do together if we really wanted to.

But to do that we have to speak clearly. No matter how uncomfortable that may be. You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us in to this mess. Even when the only sensible thing to do is to pull the emergency break.

You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children. But I don’t care about being popular, I care about climate justice and the living planet.

Our civilisation is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue to make enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.

The year 2078 I will celebrate my 75th birthday.

If I have children then maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask about you.

Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything, while there still was time to act? You say you love your children above all else. And yet you are stealing their future.

Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible there’s no hope. We can not solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground and we need to focus on equity.

And if solutions within this system are so impossible to find than maybe we should change the system itself?

We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again. You’ve run out of excuses and we’re running out of time. We’ve come here to let you know that change is coming whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.

Joint Closing Plenary

My name is Amalen Sathananthar and I speak as a member of Climate Justice Now!

I speak although I am exhausted, like many of you, and just want to go home. I speak although it appears many of you are not listening. With the taste of coal ash in my mouth I tell you: enough is enough.

Others may share warmer words but we are inspired by those who tell it like it is whether in a speech or in the graffiti on the streets.

And the writing is on the wall. On every test we could set, these outcomes are a failure.

The point of Paris was to find a way to avert the unimaginable devastation of more than 1.5c warming and reckon with the climate breakdown happening around us by repaying the enormous ecological debt owed by the rich to the poor.

Instead we have shifted to a set of accounting and reporting guidelines which will apply to the nothing pledges you cruelly call your contributions.

Rich countries who are heavily invested in fossil fuel production have abandoned their responsibilities. We have heard you say you will neither provide real money for real solutions in poorer countries, nor begin a managed decline and just transition of the fossil fuel industry at home.

We have seen you attempt to relegate to a footnote of history the needs of countries and communities facing irreversible and devastating impacts from climate change. We will not sit silently while the lives of the many are sacrificed for the luxuries of the few.

None of us expected COP24 to save the world. But we did expect better — and we do deserve better.

We cannot lose sight of the human element in all this.

That is why we would like to end by honouring the memory of Bernarditas de Castro Muller, an inspirational woman who fought relentlessly for justice and inspired many of us to do the same. We will remember her as we continue to fight for climate justice both here and at home.