At the end of Tuesday, 4 Greenpeace activists have been cut down from the Abbot Point coal facility and are being detained by the police. They are currently on their way to the Bowen police station and are about to be charged. We believe that the charges are “obstructing the police”, and “unregulated high risk activity”. Of course our activities pale in comparison to the High Risk Activity of not cutting C02 emissions, and expanding the coal industry – something that Australia is clearly guilty of. Our activist heroes have done a fabulous job, and deserve our deepest respect.
We have learned that the Small Islands States have produced a communiqué at the Pacific Islands Forum that includes the AOSIS call for developed countries to cut C02 emissions by 45% by 2020. This is a GREAT milestone, and ensures that the pressure will be on both the larger Pacific countries as well as Aus and NZ to do something significant by Thursday.
We have also heard rumours that the Australian government is trying to bully through a “Cairns Declaration on Climate Change” that presumably supports the highly conditional and qualified Australian 5-25% reduction target. This is on the table for Thursday, but we expect that many Pacific countries will say “no way José” to this.
Greenpeace is standing strong with our Pacific brothers and sisters encouraging the kind of action that will secure the Pacific’s future.
There will be more updates on the Pacific Islands Forum throughout the week.
