Campaigners from Extinction Rebellion Nottingham took a message ‘COP 28 – Betrayal’ to the streets of Nottingham today in St Peters Square.
In a statement, Extinction Rebellion Nottingham said:
“COP 28 was a betrayal. After the hottest year on record, it is a complete failure that the COP summit didn’t actually agree to phase out fossil fuels. The lack of decisive action will directly result in the suffering and death of many people around the world, many of whom are already experiencing the impact of climate breakdown.
Climate breakdown will also directly impact UK and Nottinghamshire citizens through more heatwaves, droughts and flooding. The food we rely on from other countries is already less plentiful and prices will continue to rise.
Scientists and engineers already have the solutions to provide enough clean, renewable energy for all humanity, but this won’t stop global heating unless we also stop burning all fossil fuels.
Temperatures could be held at a 1.5C rise if governments acted rapidly to introduce these technologies. But to remain at 1.5c we need rapid action, not vague encouragement.
We are in a climate and nature crisis but once again world leaders have caved in to the power of the fossil fuel industry. The president of this COP was actually the head of the United Arab Emirates state oil company. Would you invite a weapons manufacturer to dominate a peace conference if you were serious about wanting peace?
The agreement from COP28 has been sold as groundbreaking, but really, after 28 years of debate, it is just stating the obvious – that we need to transition away from fossil fuels!
Right now the world is still creating more and more emissions from fossil fuels each year This latest agreement is full of empty pledges and loopholes.[3] There are no commitments, no legal requirements, no accountability and no justice for the global south or vulnerable island nations.
There has been almost complete radio silence from our Government about COP 28. They continue to grant hundreds of new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, on the false argument that it makes us more energy secure – just what the world does not need.”
