Melbourne's Punt Road disrupted by Cop29 protest
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 15 Nov 2024
40 XR activists brought city inbound traffic to a slow crawl, while others unfurled a giant red 5x4 metre banner above them, on the South-Eastern Freeway overpass.
The action took place as COP 29 (UN Conference of the Parties) rolled out in the oil state of Azerbaijan during November. Climate COP-out actions were also scheduled in Sydney.
One protester told the Sky News Today show that the planet was "running out of time". "People like me who take the time to inform themselves on the situation and coming to desperate measures like this because really we're scared," he said.
7 News reported that a major thoroughfare was blocked by dozens of protesters creating havoc for commuters, with the Sunrise reporter keen to record driver frustration.
Many of the slow marchers and other climate activists will head to the Rising Tide People's Blockade at the end of November in the world's biggest coal port in Newcastle, 19-26 November, and then to Canberra, 27-28 November, for the final 2024 sitting days of Parliament.
Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Catherine Strong said:
“We are in the climate endgame, heading past the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit and towards the point of no return. We are already seeing climate-related food and water shortages, conflict and mass migration. We are risking societal collapse. As Sir David King, former advisor to the UK government has recently stated,
“On our current path, civilisation as we know it will disappear. If we meet current commitments only – net zero by 2050 – perhaps some form of humanity will survive, managing the challenges of continued extreme weather events, ice loss, and sea-level and temperature rises."
"The international climate talks, on which our futures depend, are once again shaping up as a festival of 'blah, blah, blah' – a greenwashing exercise that provides a giant distraction and little outcome. They are once again being hosted in an authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights, and a “critically insufficient” record on climate.
"And once again, the Australian government is heading to the talks with a shameful record of fossil fuel expansion – a betrayal of our Pacific Island neighbours and vulnerable communities around the world. Fossil fuel lobbyists will be attending Cop29 in droves and the dodgy sideline deals may already be starting.
"Elnur Soltanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister and chief executive of Cop29, is on record as saying
'There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established. Socar [the national oil and gas company] is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia… We will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas being produced, perhaps forever.' "
Extinction Rebellion spokesperson, Sam Clarke said:
"This is the twenty-ninth year of Cop negotiations and greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere still continue to rise. At Cop28 last year, the countries involved committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels"in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science", but each year fossil fuel production continues to increase.
"Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s response at the time was to call for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower. But his government appears to believe this includes embracing a gas export strategy and allowing huge gas and coal projects to proceed. Some people like to say that what we do in Australia is too small to make a difference, but that is not true.
"Australia is the third largest exporter of fossil fuels after Russia and Saudi Arabia and these exports, under current government policies, are going up not down. Unless we take action at emergency speed we are on a 'highway to hell' to quote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres."