PEOPLE Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin has said that the elites and political establishment are an obstacle to climate action and change can only be brought about by mass people power.
He was speaking as the United Nation’s COP26 into climate change is being held in Glasgow over the next two weeks.
Said Cllr Harkin: “The key gathering to stop climate destruction is not elites and political establishment representatives in Glasgow – but those joining mass protests here and across the world on 6th of November and throughout the UN COP26 Conference.
“Governments, including our own, have failed to follow-through on commitments made at the Paris Climate Accords in 2015.
“The vast majority of pollution is the responsibility of the G20 industrial nations, nearly 80 per cent. 100 Corporations are responsible for more than 70 per cent of global pollution.
“Oil giants Shell and BP are responsible for more than 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually but have not paid a penny of corporate tax on North Sea oil and gas extraction in the past three years even though they made tens of billions in profit.
“The Stormont Executive hasn’t taken climate and environmental regulations serious for decades.
“Climate bill’s under discussion in Stormont fall way short of what is required.
“The DUP’s bill is greenwashing.
“Given we now face a ‘red alert for humanity’ net zero emissions by 2045 is completely inadequate.
“Climate bill’s are meaningless when Stormont ministers:
“Greenlight destructive corporate dredging of Lough Neagh;
“Do nothing to clean up toxic Mobuoy dump;
It will cost £50 million to clean up dump at Mobuoy near Derry
“Threaten to slash funding for public transportation;
“Regularly fail to deliver on air quality promises;
“And bend over backwards to greenlight Dalradian Gold’s poisonous mining in the Sperrins.
“Add to this the Executive’s refusal to support an Independent Enviromental Agency.
“The same is true in the Dáil with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s effort to block People Before Profit legislation keeping all remaining fossil fuels in the ground.
“Westminster, the Stormont Executive and the Dáil are fiddling while global corporations continue to plunder the planet for profit no matter the consequences for communities and nature.
“The political establishment here is just as addicted to climate destructive capitalism as corporations.
“We are backing the Cop26 Coalition demands for real action on climate change.
“Real alternative solutions exist but they need to be backed up by people power.
“We urge people to join the global day of action on November 6.”
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