Press release - May 5, 2006
HYDERABAD, India — There’s something about obvious truths that make them invisible to those in power. For instance, the fact that the ADB refuses to see that by funding coal power projects, they are, in fact, funding climate change. That their funding of projects like the BLCP coal plant in Map Tha Phut and the lignite mine in Mae Moh are directly responsible for the deaths of over a hundred people from illnesses caused by environmental pollution, and are contributing to global warming and climate change on a very significant scale.
Greenpeace Solar Generation members present Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of the Planning Commission, with an ice-cream with a flag that says 'don't burn our future.' The Solar Generation is at the 39th ADB AGM to protest against ADB funding in coal power plants.
The ADB had some of these truths pointed out
to them at their 39th annual meeting in
Hyderabad. Solar Generation members, appalled by the
ADB's disregard for the welfare of a planet that they, the youth,
will inherit one day, decided that enough was enough. It was time
to meet the delegates.
Solar Generation students entered the venue
where the annual meeting is being held, armed with hundreds of
bowls of ice cream. They offered the ice cream (swirls of vanilla
and strawberry) to delegates attending the meeting, and with the
temperature outside at a blistering 40 degrees, it was a welcome
treat. But there is more to this than meets the eye. Each bowl had
a flag stuck in it that said 'Don't burn our future!' As each
delegate accepted the ice-cream, the Solar generation members spoke
to them about the importance of renewable energy in preserving our
planet.
And they had a distinguished audience: from P
Chidambaram, the finance minister of
India, to Montek
Singh Ahluwalia, the Chairman of the Planning Commission of India,
to several international delegates, everyone listened as the young
people spoke. At the end of it, it was a satisfied group of young
people who left the venue.
This was only the beginning of Solar
generation activities in the city this week. They, along with other
youth groups from Hyderabad, have drafted a declaration, emphasizing
their demand that the ADB shift 100% of their financing in the
energy sector to renewable energy. They will take this declaration
around the city, getting signatures from people in support of their
declaration. They will then release the declaration to the public
and the media, as well as presenting a copy to delegates in the
venue.