in Paris, demonstrators gather against climate inaction in the midst of COP26

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“The change will not come from the COP26, but from citizen mobilizations”. Convinced, like Vincent Gay, member of Attac, of the need to demonstrate to accelerate the fight against global warming, hundreds of demonstrators gathered, Saturday, November 6, on the forecourt of the town hall in Paris at the appeal from a hundred environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Notre affaires à tous and Alternatiba.

>> Climate: follow the day of global mobilization for the climate.

This rally was one of many organized around the world for climate justice in the midst of COP26 in Glasgow (Scotland), in order to put pressure on world leaders, and in the wake of the youth protests the day before.

These world leaders were represented at the event by 10 portraits, including those of Joe Biden (United States), Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping (China) or Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), waved in front of a giant banner proclaiming: “climate inaction = crime against the living”. “I am not waiting for decisions from this COP, but I hope that we will manage to take advantage of this opening to publicize our fight against environmental racism. It is an urgent matter, people are dying and falling ill today. hui “, explains Thaís Santos Silva, a Brazilian activist from the Uneafro collective.

On the platform, Askyy, an activist in the Extinction Rebellion movement, sums up the general feeling. “It’s not at COP26 that they will fix the problem. I am 20 years old, when I was born, there were already COPs and if it was useful I would not be here in front of you “, launches the young activist. The speeches are punctuated by slogans, choreography and a minute of silence “in tribute to the spirits of climatic and environmental crimes”.

Some elected officials and politicians, such as the presidential candidate Yannick Jadot (EELV), are present among the demonstrators but none is invited to speak. We also meet many children and adolescents, like Zoe, 14, who came “show that we are a lot not to be fooled by the words of politicians”.

Guillaume, 49, came from the Oise with his son and daughter. “You have to get involved as a citizen for the government to really act, he believes. I am also to show my children that small gestures are not enough, that we must mobilize “. He said he was a little disappointed by the mobilization, while the town hall square was not full: “I saw on Facebook that we were 3,000 participants, it’s barely a stone in the government’s shoe. We should be a million”.


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