There has been an increasing amount of scepticism over international summits after all the disappointments of the UN climate talks in recent years. However, urgent action is needed more than ever, so although people are sick of being told this is “make or break”, we must continue to show how important it is for robust action to be taken as a result of the talks.
Twenty years after the first Earth Summit in Rio, leaders are returning to Brazil where they’ll discuss how we can all lead good lives while fairly sharing the world’s limited resources. Some of our campaigners joined with other members of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition and a samba band on Saturday to send a message to our leaders.
Friends of the Earth campaigners will be in Rio pushing for:
- Access to clean energy for everyone and an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
- No sale of the world’s natural resources and unique habitats.
- More ambitious action to prevent climate catastrophe.
- The voices of affected communities to be heard by decision makers.
- A strong outcome that doesn’t weaken previous agreements.
There is a detailed briefing available here and there’s also an e-action to call on Nick Clegg to switch government subsidies away from dirty fossil fuel industries to support clean energy access for the billions without.
Yesterday there was a massive twitterstorm across the world from people demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies. We hope that this growing movement will lead to better outcomes from this summit to give us hope that the world will not continue to pursue economic growth at the expense of the environment. We only have one planet, so we can’t afford to keep destroying and polluting all that is precious on this one.
