Event organizers say they are also hoping to find a way to include a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Paris attack, along with calls to protect the planet and its people from the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, droughts and floods.
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LOCAL members of the 350.org, a non-governmental organisation that advocates on Climate Change, are supporting their French counterparts after a global climate change march was cancelled. If we say [in France] that we have the right to keep our way of life, to go to cafes and drink wine – we also have the right and the duty to be in the streets and keep the momentum for the climate justice movement.
“World leaders, one after another, are reconfirming that they are going to Paris on November 30, because they think this is an important event”. The Global Climate March organized by the group will meet to discuss the best way to proceed, given the security risk and the possibility of a low turn out, thus mitigating the political impact. AFP has reported that an estimated 5,000 security officials would have been needed to police the Paris march the day before the talks start.
Before the coordinated wave of attacks carried out by three groups of gunmen and suicide bombers on Friday night, it had been announced that 1,500 police, military police and firefighters, more than 100 United Nations guards and 300 private security agents would secure Le Bourget outside Paris where the conference will be hosted. And so, the signal, the political signal, he sent us was: “We want to maintain a form of public expression across both weeks”.
Such gatherings have always been accompanied by large civil society events, including protests by green activists generally unhappy with the negotiations and outcome.
However, organizers of the marches are determined that their voices will be heard during the leaders’ summit, if not via mass marches then through more creative ways.
“It’s not just a Paris message, it’s coming from everywhere”, she said.
“We reaffirm the below 2C degree climate goal”, it said, underlining a “determination” to adopt a deal with legal force. But in 100 hundred years, if climate change goes unchecked, that could change dramatically.
Nicolas Haeringer, France campaigner for climate campaign group 350.org, said: “The tragedy in Paris has only strengthened our resolve”.
Marc Morano, a climate change skeptic who runs the Climate Depot blog, scoffed at the movement’s “lamenting the shift in focus from climate to actual threats like terrorism”.
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“People know that the struggle for peace and the fight against climate change are inextricably linked – unchecked climate disruption could tear our world apart, whereas a global effort to stop it could help bring us together”, Henn said. Alix Mazounie is worldwide policies coordinator at the Climate Action Network France.
