Africa joins mass die-in as Lima climate talks end

The final day of UN negotiations began with a mass die-in of observers from across the world to highlight the voices ignored by the outcome of the conference.

At the 2013 climate conference in Warsaw, Poland, civil society groups and others staged a massive and unprecedented “walkout” of the negotiations in protest of what they viewed as another year of failed negotiations.

As protesters left the conference halls in Poland, they chanted the phrase, “Volveremos!” which in Spanish means, “we will return.” 

After another year of still rising global warming emissions, diplomats and civil society observers returned to COP20 in Lima, Peru, with an unrelenting call for justice, but a slightly different tone.

As negotiations concluded on Friday, members of civil society performed a “die-in” with over 150 participants.

“This is hypocrisy and duplicity on the part of developed country governments,” said Fazal Issa of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) from Tanzania.

In unison, demonstrators fell to the ground outside of the plenary hall where a text to set a framework for a global climate “deal” next year in Paris was being negotiated.

“Governments of developed countries are pressuring developing countries when they do not even own up to the inadequacy of their targets and constantly refuse to include climate finance as part of binding agreements,” Issa told the crowd. “Climate finance for mitigation actions in the South is part of the obligations and fair share of the efforts of developed countries.” 

Other speakers were from the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Peru.

Gerry Arances of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice stated that “we are already suffering massive devastation, loss of lives, and displacement of communities, with just 0.8°C of warming. Even that will mean far worse consequences for our people than what they are already experiencing.”

He added that neither sympathy nor solidarity were adequate, because “this outcome in Lima is unacceptable to the people of Asia.”

The impacts in the Philippines highlight that some losses and damages from a warmer world are already and will continue to be unavoidable.

Last year in Warsaw, a process was established so that countries most responsible for climate change could compensate those that suffer these losses.

But this year, some developed countries, like the United States and Japan, have tried to oust such a mechanism from being included in a global agreement.

Peruvian Lorena Del Carpio of Movimiento Ciudadano Frente al Cambio Climatico (Citizens Movement on Climate Change), called citizens from across the world to continue to rise into action and not be struck down.