MADRID — Climate activists from youth groups and indigenous communities twice protested high-level speeches at the United Nations climate talks Wednesday in a first for the conference that led to protesters being escorted outside by police.
The incident led several climate advocacy groups, as well as prominent youth climate activists, to speak out, calling the U.N.’s response “shameful” and stating that activists were “bullied” by security forces leading them out of the conference venue.
Youth activists initially took over the stage for a brief sit-in following a high-level session Wednesday morning on the “climate emergency,” during which Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, newly Time’s “Person of the Year,” had just given remarks.
Then, later in the afternoon, hundreds of protesters led by indigenous peoples’ advocates blocked the hall near the conference venue’s plenary room, calling for “climate justice.” More than 100 of those protesters were ultimately led outside by the conference venue’s security.
A coalition of climate groups, including 350.org, Friends of the Earth International, World Wildlife Fund, and Oil Change International, said in a statement Wednesday that the response to the protests was indicative of their interests being shut out of the talks.
“People around the world are crying out for justice, and fighting oppression, while those in power attempt to shut us out,” the groups wrote. “They pay us lip service, thanking us for our action, but when the time comes to act, they slam the door in our face while providing a platform for polluters.”
Luisa Neubauer, a German youth climate activist who spoke alongside Thunberg at a number of events in Madrid, said in a tweet the U.N. climate talks “made the most shameful kind of history,” adding the protesters being forced out was “outrageous.”
Wednesday’s protests were objecting to what activists say is little progress being made at the talks, during which countries are supposed to hammer out the remaining rules to implement the Paris climate agreement.
So far, however, negotiators don’t appear to be nearing a deal on several critical issues, including ones related to the extent of high-emitting countries’ liability for their emissions and richer countries’ obligations to poorer and more vulnerable countries dealing with climate change.
During her remarks Wednesday morning, Thunberg slammed world leaders at the conference.
“Finding holistic solutions is what the COP should be all about,” she said. “But instead, it seems to have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition.”
Thunberg said that the world is far from the changes needed to address climate change.
“The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening when, in fact, almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR,” Thunberg said.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that though he didn’t know the specifics of Wednesday’s protests, he admired that they drew attention to the “adamancy” of countries needing to do more on climate change.
“Whatever is happening here is not going to be enough,” unless countries set a target for increasing efforts by next year’s climate talks, Kerry said.
Next year, countries are slated to update their voluntary emissions reductions pledges under the Paris Agreement, and many environmental advocates and the most vulnerable countries want any deal in Madrid to explicitly call for countries to “enhance” their pledges.
Kerry added, though, that protesters must always be prepared for the consequences, which could include getting arrested or kicked out.
He said when he and others demonstrated in opposition to the Vietnam War, they often chose places where they knew they weren’t allowed to be. “We knew we’d probably be arrested,” he said.
However, Kerry appeared to caution against protesting in ways that would be alienating.
“The point is to make the point, but the point is not to lose the very people that you’re working with on doing this,” he said, adding that, “I think you always have to balance it.”
