European Citizens summit attendees call upon leaders to increase climate action at New York Climate Summit.
On the morning of the UN Climate Summit in New York, hundreds of people attending the European Citizens Summit in Brussels sent messages calling for their governments to ramp up action on climate change.
Climate Action Network Europe (CAN Europe) and Friends of the Earth Europe offered people attending the summit the opportunity to send their ‘Climate Asks’ to the Ban Ki-moon Summit. Many concerned people wrote strong messages, demanding urgent climate action from their heads of state or government who are due to meet today at the UN in New York.
The pictures can be seen below.
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The messages uniformly called for immediate, concrete and ambitious action from the talks: “SERIOUSLY, Do Something ”, read one; “concrete action! No progress reports!” read another. Others called on world leaders to “stop funding fossil fuels”, and called for the EU to adopt binding 40% energy efficiency targets for 2030.
“European citizens are worried about climate change and want our leaders to act. The New York Summit is the opportunity for our governments to live up to the expectations of the European public. We want to hear new plans to increase renewable energy, lower energy consumption, reduce the use of fossil fuels and expand financial support to climate action in poor countries,” said Wendel Trio Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.
“This summit is a moment for the EU to signal increased ambition in the run-up to October’s EU Council on 2030 targets. It would be embarrassing for its weak and ineffective proposal on emission reductions, energy savings and renewables targets to be presented in front of so many world leaders in New York,” said Susann Scherbarth, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.
The action follows on from the global People’s Climate March, which saw the largest ever mobilization of people calling for governments and polluters to stop blocking the urgent action required to halt catastrophic climate change. More than 400,000 people took to the streets of New York, while more than 2000 people marched in Brussels on Sunday. Marchers have signaled this is as the beginning of a growing public movement away from a fossil fuelled economy.