It is a betrayal---Friends of the Earth

Today Morning I was checking my mail. I saw a letter from Friends of Earth. On Wednesday, December 16, Friends of the Earth delegates from across the world arrived at the Bella Center in Copenhagen to keep fighting for a strong and just climate deal. This letter state that the Friends of the Earth and other civil society groups play a key role at the conference in advocating for climate justice and supporting under-resourced negotiators from poor countries -- who are literally fighting for their survival as they push for strong climate actions.


 Limiting the access of civil society to these negotiations is not only a betrayal of the guiding United Nations principle of participation, it profoundly hinders the capacity of poor countries to achieve a just outcome. Watch the full detail of this letter and send your comments. 

Here's also An Video documenting how the day Democracy Now caught up with Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International as he was being kicked out of the climate conference center. Members of Friends of the Earth groups from around the world arrived at the Bella Center this morning to take part as official observers in the climate negotiations taking place in Copenhagen -- only to be told that their badges were no longer valid, despite all of them having the proper accreditation and the required secondary badges.

Other civil society organizations have rallied in support of our team and Avaaz, whose representatives were also locked out of the talks. Climate Action Network (CAN) International, with over 500 member groups, sent a letter to Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, president of the climate conference, and Mr. Yvo de Boer, who heads up the UNFCCC, to urge that Friends of the Earth and Avaaz be reinstated and that the rights of civil society to participate in the climate conference be respected, in line with UN principles.

One of the key roles Friends of the Earth has played at the conference has been to advocate for climate justice and the interests of the poor countries that have done the least to cause the climate crisis but will feel some of its strongest impacts. UN's decision to exclude us will leave tremendously under-resourced negotiators from poor countries with even less support inside the Bella Center to fight for a fair agreement.The photo to the right (credit: Friends of the Earth International) shows Friends of the Earth campaigners staging a sit-in at the Bella Center to protest the limitations put on their access. They're holding up the badges that prove they had all of the proper accreditation to enter.Our exclusion and the sit-in we staged in protest in the lobby of the Center were covered by media outlets like the Guardian, Solve Climate and the New York Times.

Also, check out these articles in the Los Angeles Times and U.S. News & World Report where Erich and Nick help frame the discussion on the dynamics of developing and developed in Copenhagen and what is needed for an equitable agreement to be reached.