Written by Sarah Tyrrell from Young Friends of the Earth Ireland, who is part of the Young Friends of the Earth Europe team at the COP 19 UN Climate Talks in Warsaw.
On Tuesday 19th November, approximately thirty young people from across Europe took part in a demonstration outside the UN Climate Talks in Warsaw city centre. Dressed in radiation suits and gas masks, carrying banners and placards, the group raised their voices against nuclear power and all forms of dirty energy. As delegates walked into the stadium they stopped to take pictures of the demonstrators and engaged in conversation with many of them.
Nuclear power is one of the many false solutions being put forward as a climate friendly energy source- but we’re not falling for it. Nuclear energy produces carbon emissions at every stage of the process and is not an alternative that we at Young Friends of the Earth Ireland accept. Furthermore the promotion of nuclear energy is part of the strategy of some of the corporate sponsors of these climate talks. Multinational corporations lobby politicians and push forward their own agendas, essentially gaining legitimacy for their dirty energy projects by assocation with the UNFCCC. Civil society groups, incuding Young Friends of the Earth Europe, have drawn a significant amount of attention to the corporate dimension of the talks this year.
Arguing for nuclear power as an energy alternative which is “climate change friendly” is quite frankly laughable and Young Friends of the Earth Ireland does not support nuclear energy or any other form of dirty energy.
Through this action, along-side our other longstanding campaigns, we seek to promote only renewable energies which will harm neither people nor planet.