Yes Men behind Canada environment spoof
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:-Yesterday, a “major development” was announced just before the final round of UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, “responding to the recent concerns expressed by the G77 bloc of countries,” said the Campaign for Climate Equity.
p2pnet reported the item, highlighting Agenda 2020, which set “binding emissions reductions targets of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050, in line with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and approaching the levels demanded by the African Group,” according to CCE.
It also introduced the Climate Debt Mechanism (CDM), “committing Canada to much-needed funding to those developing countries facing the most dire consequences of climate change,” stating:
“CDM payments will begin with 1% and rise to the equivalent of 5% of Canada’s GDP annually by 2030.”
However, it was a satire and it seriously angered Environment Canada which declared in a hurried press statement, a “spoof press release targeted Canada in order to generate hurtful rumors and mislead the Conference of Parties on Canada’s positions on climate change, and to damage Canada’s standing with the international business community.”
Could Canada’s reputation with respect to environmental matters be any worse than it is already?
Anyway, “The elaborate intercontinental operation was spearheaded by a group of concerned Canadian citizens, the “Climate Debt Agents” from ActionAid, and The Yes Men,” say the Yes Men, going on >>>
It involved the creation of a best-case scenario in which Canadian government representatives unleashed a bold new initiative to curb emissions and spearhead a “Climate Debt Mechanism” for the developing world.
The ruse started at 2:00 PM Monday, when journalists around the world were surprised to receive a press releaseenviro-canada.ca, a copy of ec.gc.ca) that claimed Canada was reversing its position from “Environment Canada” ( on climate change.
And on >>>
Why Blame Canada?
The only country in the world to have abandoned the Kyoto Protocol’s emissions and climate debt targets, Canada also has the most energy-intensive, destructive and polluting oil reserves in the world. The Alberta tar sands, according to The Economist, are in fact the world’s biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions.
“By not agreeing to emissions reductions, Canada is holding a loaded gun to our heads, and seems ready to pull the trigger on millions of us around the globe, ” said Margaret Matembe aka Kodili Chandia of the “Climate Debt Agents.” “They leave us no choice but to see them as criminal.”
At last year’s climate summit in Poznan, Poland, over 400 civil society organizations voted Canada worst of all nations in blocking progress towards a binding climate treaty. Will Canada take the dubious prize again this year in Copenhagen?
“The Canadian government is not listening to its citizens,” says Sarah Ramsey, a resident of Alberta who has seen the destruction of the tar sands firsthand. Ramsey traveled to Copenhagen to give voice to a generation of young Canadians. “We are discouraged and demoralized by our government’s position on climate change. We decided to lend our government a hand, and show them what good leadership looks like.”
In solidarity with the delegates from the G77 Bloc of nations, today’s intervention was also meant to highlight an issue at the heart of the ongoing talks—the issue of climate justice, and the climate debt that the developed world owes the developing world. Seventy-five percent of the historical emissions that created the climate crisis came from 20% of the world’s population in developed countries, according to the UN, yet up to 80% of the impacts of the climate crisis are experienced in the developing world, according to the World Bank.
“I meant every word I said,” says Kodili Chandia, a spokesperson for the Climate Debt Agents, who spoke out as a member of the Ugandan delegation. “This debate isn’t just about facts and figures and abstract concepts of fairness—the drought we are seeing right now in East Africa is directly threatening the lives of millions of people, including farmers in my own family. We have not created this problem but we are living with the consequences. That’s why I still say: It’s time for rich countries to pay their climate debt.”
The cartoon is from Ben West’s Photos.
Stay tuned.
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p2pnet – Environment Canada: Agenda 2020 panic, December 15, 2009
Yes Men – Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; Climate Debt No Joke, December 16, 2009
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December 16th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
In a world where you have no due support and completely overpowered by corruption at all levels, you absolutely have to do something radical to bring issues to light.
Maybe these guys are crossing a certain “grey area”, but I have to give them points for originality and creativity.