In Montreal, thousands of people marched to the call of some sixty environmental defense organizations as well as indigenous organizations from Canada and the Americas to demand that the decision-makers gathered at COP15 take action ” now to protect biodiversity.
The biting cold of December seems to have discouraged more than one, because the demonstration is of modest size in the streets of Montreal. This participant, who wears on her head a replica of caribou, an endangered species in Quebec, she has another explanation. “ I think there are a lot of people who are cynical, because there were 100,000 people three years ago, it didn’t change anything, so there is that I think. »
“ I am completely opposed to COP15abounds his neighbor on the left. It’s the fifteenth and then we see that the state of the world continues to deteriorate, and in fact we ask ourselves a lot of questions because there are a lot of private interests that come into play here. The UN recently congratulated Total Energie for their ecological commitment, is that a joke? So in fact it’s a whole model to rethink. »
Lobby
However, the objective of the mobilization is to send a “ signal » to the countries negotiating the next « peace pact with nature “. Delegates from around the world have until December 19 to agree on twenty objectives key to stopping the destruction of natural environments by the end of the decade.
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At the head of the procession, representatives of indigenous nations from Chile, Western Canada, but also Ecuador, denounce the exploitation of natural resources by large mining companies.
“ What do we want? Actions for the climate! »
“ What do we want? Actions for the climate! », « When ? Now ! sings the crowd in the middle of which stands an imposing articulated deer and the puppet of a large tree.
Because time is running out, say demonstrators and NGOs: a million species are threatened with extinction, a third of the land is seriously degraded and fertile soils are disappearing, while pollution and climate change are accelerating the degradation of the oceans. ” Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction thundered the UN Secretary General on the eve of the opening of COP15.
(With AFP)
Environmental advocates fear final deal will be unworkable
The global pact to save nature, in negotiations at COP15, will be doomed to failure whatever its ambitions if the countries do not agree on real mechanisms for the application and revision of commitments, denounced Saturday environmentalists. The general opinion is that the absence of such mechanisms played a major role in the failure of the previous ten-year pact, adopted in 2010 in Aichi, Japan, of which almost no objective of safeguarding ecosystems was achieved.
” Strong text, which commits countries to reviewing progress against global goals and scaling up action over time, is key to holding governments accountable said Guido Broekhoven, senior official of WWF International, very concerned by the progress of negotiations on this point.
Binding implementation mechanisms are thus at the heart of the Paris agreement on the fight against global warming. However, the current text on biodiversity “ urge only countries to consider a global assessment scheduled in four years. Without commitment on a possible national effort if ever the trajectory was not kept.
“ So what we have on the table is hardly an encouragement to perhaps do better. And there is no compliance mechanism under discussion that could help organize the necessary conversation between governments on how to cooperate better. “, worries Aleksandar Rankovic, adviser to the NGO Avaaz.
Saturday was supposed to be the last day for delegates to work on this vital chapter, before their environment ministers arrive on December 15 for the home stretch of the negotiations. Under pressure, the principle of an additional meeting next week was finally approved.
(With AFP)