A hundred people demonstrated Monday evening, less than 24 hours after the signing of an agreement at COP15, to denounce a “masquerade” without real effect to ensure the future of biodiversity.
Chanting slogans, they left Philips Square before walking through the streets of the city center to the edge of the Palais des Congrès where dozens of riot police surrounded them.
There, the demonstrators hung stuffed animals with the effigy of different animal species on a makeshift gallows, each time condemning them to death for imaginary crimes such as, for example, “having grown up where [nous] wanted to build.
Met just before the march, some had denounced the conclusions of COP15, “commitments to which no one is beholden”. “This is what we have seen with the other COPs, it is that the results are always more minimal, are not enough to change things and that in addition, we are not going to respect them”, underlined a protester who wished to remain anonymous.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Hundreds of demonstrators demonstrated.
“According to indigenous and scientific knowledge, what would be relevant to do at this point is to question the capitalist system which is at the root of the problem”, lamented alongside him another demonstrator who he didn’t want to identify himself either.
“Comfortable compromises”
“Protecting biodiversity means fighting what destroys it. The socio-ecological transition cannot be paved with comfortable compromises and superficial accommodations,” said a speaker afterwards.
The latter then decried the position of the Legault government, including that of its Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charrette, who, in an interview with the daily The dutysaid it wanted to keep its power to encroach on the habitats of endangered species in the context of certain development projects with “actual relevance”.
Despite a very strong police presence, the evening ended without incident when the demonstrators took the metro, as The Press. The participants responded to the appeal of the Anti-Capitalist and Ecologist Coalition against COP15.
The responsible capitalist system
In a press release issued before the event, the latter deplored the flagship measure proposed at COP15, i.e. the protection of 30% of natural land and marine environments by 2030. “According to the Coalition, this measure completely obscures this idea that what is destructive for biodiversity is the capitalist, colonial and imperialist economic system which will be able to continue to destroy life without pitfalls outside protected areas,” it read.
During the night of Sunday to Monday, an agreement described as “historic”, in order to reverse the global decline in biodiversity, was snatched from the 15e United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15), in Montreal.
The key objective of protecting “at least 30% of land, inland waters and oceans” remains there, and a way through has been found to resolve the thorny issue of financing measures to protect biodiversity in countries. in development.