03 December 2007 - Indonesia
— Governments meet in Bali this week to agree
an action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
to stop climate change from inflicting severe
impacts. The Rainbow Warrior is in Indonesia
to add urgency to our call for climate action.
Our activists have received vastly different
reactions – on the one hand, they joined in
a festive celebration calling for clean energy
now, and on the other hand hung a banner at
a coal plant as security guards fired shots
in the air.
Last Friday, in Jepara, Central Java, hundreds
of people gathered together to create images
of "human wind turbines" on the
site of a proposed nuclear power and demand
clean renewable energy. Calling for "Clean
Energy Now", the crew of the Rainbow
Warrior were joined by community members and
activists from KRATON (the Anti-Nuclear People's
Coalition) in a festive performance where
hundreds of people emulated the rotating blades
of a wind farm. Gavin Edwards, Head of the
Climate & Energy campaign, was pleasantly
surprised: "We expected 600 community
members to show up. We'd asked people to dress
in white, to make a nice vivid image. At the
appointed time, a sea of white appeared over
the hill - 1200 people!"
A festive spirit and pleasant surprises were
nowhere to be found the following day, however,
when security personnel from PLTU Tanjung
Jati B coal power plant in Jepara, Central
Java, fired five gunshots and drew knives
as activists from the Rainbow Warrior climbed
the coal plant's cooling tower and loading
crane, hanging banners reading "Coal
Kills Climate."
Both of the weekend's activities - although
received extremely differently - were part
of our campaign to drive home the message
that governments need to shift to clean renewable
energy, and not be distracted by the empty
promise of nuclear power or fall back on the
bad habit of continuing to build and fund
coal power plants, the dirtiest of all fossil
fuels. Let's hope that it's the pleasant surprises
that will win out this week!
Vital UN climate negotiations start in Bali
Two weeks is long enough to get the job done
- 02 December 2007 - Bali, Indonesia — It’s
said that a week is a long time in politics.
The burning question is whether two weeks
is long enough for governments to finally
wake up, smell the carbon and confront the
biggest problem facing the world. Yes, says
Greenpeace. Absolutely.
Here it is plain and simple: stop bickering.
Put aside your differences. Come up with a
crystal-clear mandate so negotiators can go
full-bore over the next two years to agree
deep cuts in global warming pollution. And
make sure that the long-neglected issue of
ending deforestation is firmly in the mix.
Real action for the climate
For years, governments have let us, their
citizens, down by failing to get to grips
with the problem. They’ve left us increasingly
exposed to the biggest threat that civilisation
has ever faced. Before things get totally
out of hand, governments have to knuckle down
to business in Bali and act on the basis of
the alarming scientific findings about climate
change that they themselves approved at the
IPCC meeting only a few weeks ago. They agreed
that climate change can be beaten using means
already at our disposal or just around the
corner. So let’s finally see some real action
for the climate.
Without serious cuts in global warming pollution,
the future will be more frightening and insecure
than we can imagine. And it’s no longer the
dim and distant future we’re talking about.
We are into the realm of IMTO – “In My Term
of Office”. One government – in Australia
– has already been thrown out partly because
it consistently stonewalled on climate.
Now major global corporations are at long
last viewing action against climate change
as a growth opportunity and calling for legally-binding
commitments. It’s the secure framework they
need to put big bucks into solutions, even
if many companies have still to put their
own house in order.
Two weeks is a short time for a political
turn-round. But it can be done. Although not
a single gram of carbon will be cut nor a
single sapling saved as a direct result of
Bali – for these are talks about talks – without
agreement there governments may well have
lost the opportunity of ever putting the brakes
on climate change.
