Environment Activists Call for Change

Doha, December 04 (QNA) - The organizers of the UN conference on Climate Change (Cop18) have allowed more than 7000 activists of civil society organizations to freely express their opinions and convey them to the delegations participating in COP 18. The COP18 participants are used to entre the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) amid large number of activists, who are carrying banners demanding states to take bold steps to protect the earth planet against pollution. Dozens of young people belonging to organizations and movements concerned with climate and environment stood along the corridor leading to the meeting rooms in the convention center calling on the participating delegations to conduct serious negotiations in the Doha conference to produce concrete results that help reduce emissions and pollution. With the Climate Change Conference entering its decisive stages as the high-level meetings will start later today, the activists carried pictures showing the vulnerability of the planet to climate change and pollution, and banners of various sizes calling on states to know how to protect humanity from climate changes and to achieve tangible results in this regard. Caroline Johnson, a Swedish environmental activist and member of Power Shift movement , stood early in the corridor leading to the meeting rooms carrying a banner reading "want to" while her colleague carried another banner reading "know how" to form the phrase "want to know how" questioning the way in which the participants would deal with the issues in front of them. Caroline Johnson says that she has come to Doha to deliver a message that the world wants change now, change in attitudes, actions, and reactions to the protection of the environment and the earth. Activists along the corridor distributed "messages" calling for respecting humanity, the environment and the right to life, while others stood calling upon states to contribute to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which was launched at Durban conference 2011 and to take forward steps in favor of this initiative to help poor countries face the effects of climate change. Others have expressed their dissatisfaction with the steps taken by the developed countries, for the reduction of emissions and commitment to the agreements signed in this regard, where they wrote on a large banner addressing to the participants, "No thanks" . (QNA)