On Saturday 3rd December as part of a global day of action for climate justice, Time for Climate Justice, We have faith - Act now for Climate Jusitce and ACT Alliance campaigners marched together with thousands of other thousand campaigners from across the globe through downtown Durban to demand that delegates deliver emissions cuts and climate finance making the climate jusitce message heard loud.
As negotiators continued to wrangle in the conference centre, the city was awash with banners, balloons, placards and even a few vuvuzelas as people – many of whom do not have access to the UN meetings – took to the streets to make their voices heard.
In marked contrast to the sluggish progress of negotiations over the past week, energy levels on the streets were high. Demonstrators, from countries such as China, USA, India, Brazil, Cuba and a range of African nations, braved scorching sun and bursts of rain to dance, sing and even do exercises in support of their message that delegates must overcome political obstacles and agree a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol.
Young people who had travelled by bus from Kenya to Durban as part of the We Have Faith Youth Caravan, stripped to the waist and did 17 press-ups in the street to show that they were tired of the lack of progress delivered after a succession of UN meetings. ‘We did not come to Durban to shop, we came for justice,’ said one.
Meanwhile campaigning groups – ranging from the Time For Climate Justice coalition to Greenpeace to African rural women’s associations - waved placards and marched behind banners calling for a fair climate deal for the world’s poor. The noise of the march was clearly audible from within the negotiating centre. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of UN climate talks took to a makeshift stage to address the crowd.
Protestors must now hope that the passion and urgency that they showed on the streets will filter through into the negotiating centre as talks continue next week.
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