One of the things that we’ve noticed over the past few days is that journalists have been pushing everyone here very hard to comment on the large protests outside the conference centre, and get a line they can use to make it sound like there is major division in the climate movement. ABC today ran a comment on national radio that had been given by one of our team members to her local radio station that suggested some of the protests may involve violence. To clarify our position: AYCC supports the right to peaceful protest including non-violent direct action. We do not support or condone any form of violence. We welcome the diversity of the climate movement and remind journalists that the people in Copenhagen – both inside and outside the conference centre – are here for a common purpose: to get a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to solve the climate crisis.
There will be differences of opinion and differences of approach but most share a common goal – to avoid catastrophic climate change. Action is urgently needed now to dramatically cut emissions and support the world’s poorest people who are already being hit hard by a changing climate.Tens of thousands of people are in Copenhagen to demand urgent action on climate change – backed by hundreds of millions more right across the world. The AYCC is part of the global youth movement for climate justice and we are supporting the Walk Against Warming rallies in Australia on December 12th. The Dec 12th global day of action is about millions of people standing united on this day to demand action on climate change.
We believe the international climate talks – which involve all the worlds’ nations – are currently our best chance of finding a global solution to the climate crisis. The ingredients of a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen are already on the table. The only thing lacking is the political will to negotiate final choices.
