Hundreds of climate activists demonstrated in Paris on Wednesday, demanding an end to fossil fuel finance as a meeting for a new global financial deal convened in the French city.
They are now seeking for more substantive promises, such as a roadmap for what to anticipate from this year’s Group of 20 summit and UN climate conference.
“What makes us angry, and not just on the eve of the summit,” said Soraya Fettih, campaign manager for 350.org, “is that companies like TotalEnergies, Exxon, and Shell continue to break profit records year after year, despite knowing for 50 years about the impact of their activities on the climate and biodiversity.”
The protests also attracted climate activists from Uganda who are opposing the mega oil project and its pipeline terming it an environmental hazard
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Patience Nabukalu is one of the climate activists and she has a message to the French President Emmanual Macron.
“President Macron, keep it in the ground, stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), and make polluters pay if we are to have climate justice. End fossil fuel finance. And the last one (my message, ed) is, from me… from Uganda. We are watching you. Let this (the summit, ed) be a step you take for people like us, for people from countries like mine,” said Patience Nabukalu.
Heads of state, finance leaders, and activists from around the world will converge in Paris to seek ways to overhaul the world’s development banks – like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank – and help them weather a warmer and stormier world.
