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International Letter: ENDE GELAENDE AT COP23 – LEAVE THE COAL IN THE GROUND!

One of the things that unites us international climate justice activists is our shared distrust and critique of the UN climate summits. We know that they have been almost entirely irrelevant in terms of actually achieving the radical emissions reductions; we also know that they have in fact contributed to deepening these injustices by way of the ‘false solutions’ (market mechanisms, emissions trading and the insanity of carbon offsetting). That is why the decision of Ende Gelaende is so important to head away from the summits, to the places where climate injustice is produced first and foremost: in the coal-mines and power plants.

However: while we are in the middle of the climate chaos already, which is affecting the poorest and most marginalised among us the most, it will be small comfort to hear that there are people from all over the world fighting for a phase-out of Germany’s coal industry. And as much as we distrust the UN-climate summits, they are the only places in the world where folks from the global South can put even the tiniest bit of pressure on the governments of the North to put some cash on the table, to acknowledge and start making reparations for the enormous debt that is owed to the global poor. As much as we are critical of the summits, these are the places where we can come together and exploit the light that the global media shine on the climate issue.

Friends, we applaud your decision to change the dynamic around these summits. To explain that Germany is NOT the green champion it pretends to be; that climate justice requires recognising the debt that is owed the South; and that, most importantly, we must begin to leave coal and fossil fuels in the ground – in Germany, and everywhere.

See you in the pit!
ENDE GELAENDE – UNTIL HERE AND NO FURTHER!

Alberto Acosta , Ecuador
Nicola Bullard , France
Selçuk Balamir , Netherlands
Tetet Lauron , Philippines
Brian Tokar , USA
Patrick Bond , South Africa
Lidy Nacpil , Philippines
Maxime Combes , France