Posts Tagged ‘g20’
AN INVITATION: FROM COPENHAGEN TO TORONTO
December 24th, 2009
The Group of 8 Leaders and the Group of 20 Leaders are meeting in Ontario,
from the 25th to the 27th of June, 2010.
Following the collapse of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, they will be
discussing the global economy, development and climate change.
These gatherings are about trying to fix capitalism, a system that cannot
be fixed; about creating unsustainable market responses to ecological
catastrophe that reinforce systems of oppressions; about ensuring the
continued exploitation of people of color and the South and about
celebrating war as a means to create puppet allies to maintain imperialist
power. The so-called leaders at these gatherings do not represent us.
In opposition and with a will to transform, people across Turtle Island
are organizing community-based days of action in Toronto, Canada. The
days of action will be led by Toronto-based organizations of people of
color, indigenous peoples, women, the poor, the working class, queer and
trans people and disabled people.
Read the rest of this entry »
Taking Care of Business: How Big Business Has Hijacked Climate Talks
November 24th, 2009
Published on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 by The New Internationalist
A new realism has emerged. Climate change is no longer rejected as a bogus theory the economy can ill afford. Instead, it’s a business opportunity
A flower blooms under a floodlight. It is projected on to a huge
screen, behind a panel of expensively suited executives. A CNN business
correspondent struts up and down a catwalk, excitedly thanking UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the ubiquitous Al Gore. The scene of
this corporate love-in? The World Business Summit on Climate Change.
‘The fact that I flew here to sit on a panel for one and a half
hours, then I´m flying straight back to the US, is an example of our
commitment to environmental sustainability,’ boasts Indra Nooyi, CEO of
PepsiCo, blissfully unaware of the irony of her statement. Her fellow
industry representatives make similar claims about just how
energetically they are saving the planet.
This is the new face of the climate business.
Until recently, many of the globe’s biggest corporations were firmly
in the climate change denial camp – and funding spurious research to
back up their claims. Now a new realism has emerged. Climate change is
no longer rejected as a bogus theory the economy can ill afford.
Instead, it’s a business opportunity.
Back in the days of George W Bush, the ostrich-headed faction of US
industry held sway. Companies like ExxonMobil saw no profits in
‘climate solutions’, so opposed any climate legislation. Now, carbon
markets – the buying and selling of the right to pollute – are at the
heart of proposals for a new global deal at the UN Climate Conference
in Copenhagen this December, and the ‘progressive’ wing of big
business, backed by large US-based NGOs, argues that this market-driven
approach is the only way to secure an international emissions
reductions deal.
The problem is, critics say, that carbon markets are delaying
genuine action on climate change, and shifting attention away from the
fundamental task of rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. How did it come
to this?
The ostrich position
Tags: ACES, American Petroleum Institute, big business, blame, cap-and-trade, carbon markets, carbon offsets, Carbon Trade Watch, carbon trading, CDM, Clean Development Mechanism, COP15, Copenhagen, corporate criminals, corporations, corruption, disaster, g20, green capitalism, lobbyists, loopholes, markets, offsets, politics, REDD, UN, UNFCCC, World Economic Forum | 
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Trade to Climate Caravan: Protest and Action between WTO in Geneva and COP15 in Copenhagen
November 8th, 2009
****TRADE TO CLIMATE CARAVAN***
Protest and Action around and between
7th WTO in Geneva and COP15 in Copenhagen
Two important summits take place at the end of 2009 in Europe: the 7th conference of ministers of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and the UN climate summit in Copenhagen (COP15). With a week between them, 60 activists from the global South will travel across Europe through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Denmark. They will draw attention to the consequences neoliberal globalization and climate change have on their lives and show how to fight against them. Together with local activists, they look for alternatives to free trade and the privatisation of resources, and unite the North and South in their fights for another world.
Read the rest of this entry »
Shut Coal Down in Copenhagen ahead of COP15
September 27th, 2009
Shortly after G20 protesters were attacked by police at the University of Pittsburgh, on September 26 about 1,500 people took direct action to shut down one of Copenhagen’s coal fire power plants. The SHUT IT DOWN action plan had been openly announced several months earlier and Danish police had been gearing up for massive use of force to trial new anti-protest laws. Around 100 protesters managed to get inside the power plant. Although at that point the plant should have been shut down due to safety regulations, it was kept running.
Around 100 people have been arrested. One person so far has been charged. The action was widely and positively covered in Danish news. The protesters regard this act of mass civil disobience for climate justice an encouraging success and a positive trial run for the actions surrounding the COP 15 climate conference in December in Copenhagen (On Dec 16, RECLAIM POWER!).
Action pics:
http://modkraft.dk/spip.php?article11552
For google-translated movement and mainstream news about Shut-It-Down:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmodkraft.dk%2F
For the original Danish versions go to:
Tags: action, civil disobedience, climate, climate justice, coal, COP15, Copenhagen, direct action, europe, g20, media, Pittsburgh, protest |
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Greenpeace Activists Greet G20 Leaders with Massive Banner on Pittsburgh Bridge
September 23rd, 2009
Pittsburgh, United States — Greenpeace activists rappelled off of a Pittsburgh bridge with a massive banner displaying our message to G20 leaders gathering for tomorrow’s summit. The banner takes the form of a stylized “road sign” that warns of the political maneuvering and delay that have put an international climate treaty in jeopardy as the world enters the final stretch on the road to Copenhagen.
“It is imperative that developed world leaders do not fail again in Pittsburgh. They must put money on the table to support developing countries” said Damon Moglen, Greenpeace USA’s global warming campaign director. “It is also critical that G20 leaders agree to kick-start economic recovery through clean energy investment. Both of these elements are vital to achieve a good deal in Copenhagen and avert catastrophic climate change.”
read more:
Climate Change: Off the G20 Agenda?
September 23rd, 2009
By Robert S. Eshelman
September 23, 2009
Editor’s Note: Follow Rob Eshelman’s dispatches from the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh at TheNation.com all week.
Tuesday afternoon, US District Court Judge Gary Lancaster rejected a request by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Center for Constitutional Rights for an injunction against the Pittsburgh Police. The lawyers alleged in the suit that local law enforcement has been systematically harassing and carrying out unconstitutional searches and seizures of members of two G-20 protest groups–the Seeds of Peace Collective and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC). The judge refused to restrain the police and suggested that if police conduct warrants damages claims, then the ACLU should file suit. The ACLU says it will pursue such claims.
read the whole article at The Nation
Robert S. Eshelman is an independent journalist. His articles have appeared in Abu Dhabi’s the National, In These Times and on TomDispatch.com. more…
Tags: action, climate camp, climate justice, coal, direct action, g20, legal, media coverage, mtr, Pittsburgh, police, protest, the streets |
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Mobilizing The Masses In Defense Of The Planet: Change You Can Act For
September 23rd, 2009
By Frank Joseph Smecker
With the entire planet at stake, why would anyone want to sit out on the sidelines and watch while the most crucial decision-making is about to take place? Before the adjournment of 2009 arrives for all of us, the world’s most influential and powerful individuals will be assembling more than once to discuss the economic and ecological future of the entire planet.
Later this week – September 24th through the 25th, the G-20 Summit will be taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The world’s most powerful players from the twenty most powerful industrial nations will be convening down on the “green-engineered†David L. Lawrence Convention Center to discuss the recent financial collapse, as well as the economic implications climate change has on globalization.
Then, later this year, from the 7th to the 18th of December, many of the same power-players will be flocking to Copenhagen to discuss global warming and climate change. Calling it the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15 – quite the apropos acronym-cognomen), global elites will be engaging in discourse with regard to finding a solution to climate change, alongside setting up new treaty mechanisms that will replace the futile Kyoto Protocol that is due to expire in 2012.
Tags: action, action alert, climate justice, direct action, g20, media, Pittsburgh, protest |
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Rising Tide climate contingent at People’s Uprising march on the G20
September 14th, 2009
On Thursday Sept 24 meet at 2:30 pm at Arsenal Park (40th Street & Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville) Look for the “Our Climate is not Your Business†banner. The people who are responsible for evicting poor families from their homes and displacing entire peoples through wars of conquest, are the same ones responsible for the climate crisis that evicts thousands from their communities each year as sea levels rise, droughts spread, and rivers overflow their banks. On Sept 24th and 25th they will be meeting in Pittsburgh to salvage an economic system that wreaks havoc upon our communities and ecosystems. We will not be fooled by their desperate PR campaign to paint capitalism green, nor their attempts to solve the climate crisis via the very same free market ideology that created this mess. It is plain to see, capitalism means crisis. As the Big Greens ready the beds in their luxury hotels to continue their love affair with corporate America, thousands will be flooding the streets of Pittsburgh to take direct action against the G20 and its destructive policies. Rising Tide invites all those who recognize capitalism as a root cause of climate change to join the climate contingent at the People’s Uprising mass march on the G20 on Thursday Sept 24th. This is an un-permitted march to the G20 summit site being organized by a coalition of anti-capitalist, student, labor, ecological, and anti-war groups. For the full call to action check: www.resistg20.org . Read the rest of this entry »
Why is the “Greenest City†Silencing Green Voices?
September 9th, 2009
[This morning, we at the action factory had an impressive showing at the National Press Club where representatives from Pittsburgh sought to explain “Why Pittsburgh†was chosen as the city for the G20 meeting that President Obama will host this September. The city officials are touting Pittsburgh’s economic revitalization and green initiatives over the last several years as an example for the world leaders to replicate elsewhere as they seek to address the global financial crisis and the global climate crisis during the G20. Yet they have been denying us climate advocates and our allies working on other issues the right to protest by not giving permits. So today we stood up and made our voices heard. - http://dc.actionfactories.org ]
Washington, DC — Environmental advocates hoping to influence G20 climate commitments are surprised to find that Pittsburgh is showcasing its green recovery while stalling permits and planning for a major crackdown on free speech activities during the summit. To show their frustration, they twice held up banners and were subsequently escorted out during a briefing on Pittsburgh and the G20 at the National Press Club this morning. The banners read “Why is the greenest city silencing green voices?â€
The Pittsburgh meeting is the G20 leaders’ last chance to make progress on climate change policy before the expected deal at the UN talks in Copenhagen this December. President Obama has asked finance ministers to bring climate finance proposals, but negotiations are gridlocked. The stakes are high, and climate advocates intend to be part of the conversation by encouraging the G20 to be ambitious in creating a just and sustainable future.
And yet, the efforts of climate activists have thus far been thwarted and their first amendment rights denied along with other groups organizing free speech activities in Pittsburgh. Many groups, including the Three Rivers Climate Convergence and the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice are still awaiting permits to hold peaceful marches and demonstrations.
Pittsburgh considers legislation targeting G20 protesters’ tools
August 7th, 2009
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
City of Pittsburgh officials are debating whether to legislate away some of the materials protesters use to disrupt gatherings such as the impending G-20 summit, and how to pass such legislation without compromising either their public safety plans or the public’s right to know.
Knowing that highly organized protesters use materials like plastic PVC pipe, handcuffs and other locks, wire and cement to link themselves together in tough-to-break formations with names like “sleeping dragon,” Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s administration is drafting restrictions on carrying such materials into public gathering places.
Administration officials wouldn’t detail the emerging ordinance yesterday, but compared it to special legislation passed prior to the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which restricted the transport of signs, poles and pipes into certain areas at certain times. Read the rest of this entry »