(The Guardian) Protesters interrupt the US president's speech
Four protesters holding a banner which read ‘people vs fossils’ interrupted the speech of Joe Biden, the US president, to Cop27.
The protesters were youth and Indigenous activists from the US, and they were calling on Biden to stop pushing fossil fuel extraction. They spoke with the Guardian shortly after being escorted out of the plenary hall by security staff. “The president, members of Congress and the state department have come to this international forum on climate change proposing false solutions that will not get us to 1.5C,” said Big Wind, 29, a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe in Wyoming.
“We need to accelerate the transition but that’s not going to happen by partnering with big polluters like Amazon and PepsiCo, and so we needed to call that out,” he said, in reference to an announcement earlier this week by US climate envoy John Kerry, the Bezos Earth Fund, PepsiCo and others about plans to design an energy transition accelerator.
Biden referenced Indigenous peoples in his speech, yet has failed to leverage his power to support them directly through direct access to funds needed by communities to adapt to the climate crisis, said Big Wind.
Jamie Wefald, a 24-year-old climate activist from Brooklyn, New York, said: “Joe Biden is promoting false solutions to the climate crisis, he is no climate hero. We wanted to create a moment on behalf of all frontline communities in the global north and south to demand real climate solutions.”
Four protesters holding a banner which read ‘people vs fossils’ interrupted the speech of Joe Biden, the US president, to Cop27.
The protesters were youth and Indigenous activists from the US, and they were calling on Biden to stop pushing fossil fuel extraction. They spoke with the Guardian shortly after being escorted out of the plenary hall by security staff. “The president, members of Congress and the state department have come to this international forum on climate change proposing false solutions that will not get us to 1.5C,” said Big Wind, 29, a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe in Wyoming.
“We need to accelerate the transition but that’s not going to happen by partnering with big polluters like Amazon and PepsiCo, and so we needed to call that out,” he said, in reference to an announcement earlier this week by US climate envoy John Kerry, the Bezos Earth Fund, PepsiCo and others about plans to design an energy transition accelerator.
Biden referenced Indigenous peoples in his speech, yet has failed to leverage his power to support them directly through direct access to funds needed by communities to adapt to the climate crisis, said Big Wind.
Jamie Wefald, a 24-year-old climate activist from Brooklyn, New York, said: “Joe Biden is promoting false solutions to the climate crisis, he is no climate hero. We wanted to create a moment on behalf of all frontline communities in the global north and south to demand real climate solutions.”
