| November 04, 2009 |
| Say they won’t allow the negotiators to leave until they agree to 40 per cent reductions |
| Protesters at Barcelona today took the step of locking climate negotiators inside a room to force them to talk. This morning, just after the start of formal negotiations, a group of about 50 to 60 protesters sealed off the exits of the Barcelona Convention Centre where the climate talks are being held. They taped shut the gates then sat in front, chanting slogans demanding climate justice. The UNFCCC secretariat and security personnel were taken by surprise. As delegates realised they were locked in, there was a mad search for alternative exits. The protesters demanded that industrialised countries reduce their emissions by 40 per cent by 2020. They denounced the CDM and other offset mechanisms and asked the business lobbies to leave the negotiations: “Make Barcelona a corporate lobby-free zone”. In a statement, they said, “here in Barcelona the historic Copenhagen treaty – supposed to prevent catastrophic climate change from reaching the point of no return – is being cooked up. The current Kyoto Protocol has not been able to achieve its modest targets for reducing CO2 emissions. Between 2000 and 2005, emissions have increased by 3.2 per cent annually, four times faster than in the previous decade.” They ended their statement saying: "If the climate were a bank it would have been saved...Time is running out." |
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