There is no longer anywhere for leaders to hide, we the people are watching you
NEW YORK – September 24, 2019 – In response to the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in New York, Greenpeace International’s Executive Director Jennifer Morgan said:
“This is a moment unlike anything we have ever seen before in the climate movement, and it’s just the beginning.
Despite Greta’s raw, unvarnished opening plea, for the most part world leaders did not deliver what was needed in New York today. We saw millions of people pour on to the streets on Friday making it clear they will no longer accept apathy, excuses and inaction from weak political leaders incapable of standing up to the power of the fossil fuel industry.
It’s time to address corporate power and the hold it has over politics. It’s time to stare down the fossil fuel industry and the banks that finance them, challenge their suffocating omnipresence and demand they take responsibility for the human rights impacts of the climate crisis. Communities will be heard in the courts.
This summit is a springboard for 2020, when all countries signed on to the Paris Agreement must pledge early to increase the ambition in their nationally determined contribution. It was those leaders who commissioned the IPCC to report on the latest science, those leaders who agreed to the ratchet mechanism. There are no excuses. People will be heard at the ballot boxes.
Young people will continue to be heard on the streets, in their homes and in their schools. Notice is hereby given: there is no longer anywhere to hide, because we the people will be watching you. We the people have strength in our solidarity, in our numbers, in the leadership we’ve found in the youth. We will not stop, we will keep going, until we see a sustainable 1.5 pathway, and a just transition to a cleaner and fairer future for us all.”
-ENDS-
Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]
