Parts of Civil Society Walk out of United Nations Climate Talks in Warsaw

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Christian Holz, local phone: +48 795 665 642, cholz@climateactionnetwork.ca

PARTS OF CIVIL SOCIETY WALK OUT OF UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE TALKS IN WARSAW

Photo credit: adopt a negotiator

Statement by Christian Holz, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada – Réseau action climat Canada

Warsaw, Poland (21 Now 2013) – Earlier today, the second last day of the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, representatives of a number of civil society organizations expressed their frustration with the conference in a peaceful mass walk out of the COP19 negotiations.

Christian Holz, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada reacted as follows:

“Representatives of a number of non-governmental organizations decided today to express their frustration with the negotiations here in Warsaw and their solidarity for people already suffering climate impacts by walking out of the venue.”

“Delegates from Climate Action Network Canada decided to stay in the venue in order to continue our work here and to keep the activities of the Harper government here under close scrutiny. However, we do express our support and understanding for our colleagues who took this step as we share their deep frustration with the utter lack of urgency displayed by some governments here, including the delegation of the Harper government, with regards to addressing the urgent need to solve the global climate crisis.”

“Today’s walkout was also about the frustration that the Polish host of this year’s climate conference allowed the conference to be coopted by fossil fuel interest. The overall UN climate process, on the other hand, works just as it is supposed to: capturing the collective political will of the world’s governments. Most delegations, especially those from industrialized countries such as Canada, came to Warsaw empty handed and without a mandate from their capitals to negotiate a new climate deal with the urgency and ambition required for the task. In the Canadian case this can be directly linked to the Harper government’s aggressive support for reckless tar sands expansion: Since the envisioned scale of tar sands extraction is utterly incompatible with meaningful action on climate change, it is to be expected that Ottawa would instruct its envoys to these talks to hold up progress.”

“Poll after poll shows that Canadians want their federal government to take a lead on climate action and strongly support Canada’s signature to a global climate deal but the Harper government is utterly out of touch with the Canadian population on climate change. Once Canadians have reclaimed their federal government from the oil agenda that currently determines its priorities and once its delegation to UN climate talks starts representing people not polluters, then these talks will show their true potential in addressing the global climate crisis.”