Today, we organised an action at the COP21, criticising the draft Paris agreement released over the weekend. We used a giant locked door to symbolise the barring of civil society observers from the negotiations, and the nature of the conference as a venue for backroom deals. The draft text flies in the face of the Convention: key principles are not being respected and many provisions will be voluntary. We did this action to demand and ask: what are developed countries hiding? What is the hidden agenda behind this unjust draft deal?
“The text removes the necessary level of differentiation, redefines who is vulnerable in our world. It says almost nothing about adaptation. It throws fair shares – the idea that countries must pay back what they have polluted – out of the window. By not including fundamental principles, it essentially says that Indigenous rights don’t matter. That Human Rights don’t matter. That a just transition for workers doesn’t matter.” – Maruška Mileta Young Friends of the Earth Europe.
We will not be silent about negotiations that are heading in a destructive direction. About negotiations taking place in a summit bankrolled by the money of the biggest polluters, where civil society is locked out of the room. We want a process worthy of this COP: a transparent process where civil society is included. Observers represent and support the groups that are most severely impacted, and especially those that cannot afford to send large teams here to Paris. Locked doors create unfair playing fields, where important text can be removed, where futures can be gambled with.
We demand a deal that makes the biggest polluters the biggest payers. A deal which forces the rich countries to do their fair share. A deal which ensures justice for all, particularly the most vulnerable. If we are to get a just deal that keeps warming under a 1.5C ceiling, a deal that has any element of success – then we need civil society. Therefore we ask : Keep us in the room. A fair deal is a deal agreed in an open process. You can not shut us out. Open the doors. Negotiate a fair deal.
