Environmental activists demonstrate in Paris, on the sidelines of the summit for a new global financial pact

“Unlivable planet, States, guilty lobbies” In Paris, more than 350 activists gathered on Friday, June 23, Place de la République in Paris, to protest against the financing of fossil fuels, on the second day of a summit for a new global financial pact. Among them, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

The atmosphere was festive. Against a background of Afro-pop, the activists present defined, by means of a yellow rope, a circle occupying a quarter of the monumental square in the center of which were elongated three dollar signs made up of more than 450 black cards. Then around 9 a.m., these boxes were gradually turned over to reveal their green reverse side, changing the color of the entire signs. “The picture is quite clear: it is to move from dirty finance to green finance”, explains to AFP Anne Cormille, 22 years old. The geoscience student deplores that the Paris Summit “does not even mention stopping the financing of fossil fuels”yet the source of the climatic problems to which it intends to respond.

What is clear is that this summit will not lead to any binding and strong decisions

Soraya Fettih, spokesperson for 350.org

The sign, three horizontal lines topped with a fourth vertical, symbol of the Uprisings of the Earth, a collective dissolved by the government on Wednesday, was on many faces before being hoisted on the monument to the Republic where a large square of fabric has been erected. “It was a mistake for the government”, Judge Louise Ulrich, a 19-year-old student, deploring the dissolution of the movement. According to her, “we have never talked so much (of the collective) as since its dissolution. And if tomorrow we call for action, I will go there even more!”.