Activists Protest Against Forest Carbon Offsets for Aviation at Climate Summit

MEDIA ADVISORY
Protest Action and Photo opportunity – Marrakech climate summit action
9 November, Wednesday , 16:45 pm, Restaurant Zone

A protest action by climate justice activists, women’s groups, and other social movements today will oppose proposals by the aviation sector and others to use forest conservation and other land use activities as carbon offsets for their rapidly increasing emissions at the Climate Summit in Marrakech(1). Their action will demonstrate how trees are an unreliable carbon sink that generate fake carbon credits, and thus must not be used as offsets for emissions by heavily polluting industries like aviation.

“Forest conservation is crucially important for climate change mitigation but carbon stored in biomass is not permanent” says Simone Lovera, director of the Global Forest Coalition(2) one of the organizers of the action. “Proposals to use forests and trees to offset emissions from major polluters like aviation will cripple an already weak Paris Agreement.”

“Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women play a key role in forest conservation and restoration, but private sector initiatives like carbon offset plantations form a significant threat to their rights and livelihoods” says Dr. Andrey Laletin of Friends of the Siberian Forests(3), who is one of the co-organizers of a side event on supporting community conservation (4) that will take place just prior to the action. “We need appropriate and reliable forms of legal and financial support for community conservation rather than risky market-based approaches.”

Where: Resturant Zone, Conference Center, Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco

When: 9 November, Wednesday, 16:45 – 17:00 pm

Contacts in Marrakesh:
* Simone Lovera : +31-6-47392511 (Europe) skype- simonelovera
* Coraina de la Plaza: +31 626290703 (Europe) -whatsapp and cellular.

Other contacts:
Ashlesha Khadse (Media Officer)
ashlesha@globalforestcoalition.org
Cell and whatsapp: +91 8600839193 (India)

Notes
1. The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC) is being held in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco from 7-18 November 2016.
2. Global Forest Coalition is a worldwide coalition of almost 80 NGOs and Indigenous peoples’ organizations from 53 different countries striving for rights-based, socially just forest conservation policies. Link: https://globalforestcoalition.org/media
3. Friends of the Siberian Forests is a Russian NGO that Works on the conservation and sustainable management of Siberian forests.
4. The Side event titled “Addressing Climate Change through Land Use: Supporting Corporations or Communities? Time to choose,” will take place from15:00—16:30 in the room Arabian (150)

9 Nov, 2016
Posted in Press releases, Forests and Climate Change