Climate Action Network, an umbrella of over 850 NGOs operating in around 100 countries, on the closing day of the UN climate talks yesterday awarded Australia this year’s Colossal Fossil for its stance during the negotiations in Warsaw, Poland.
“The delegation came here with legislation in its back pocket to repeal the carbon price, failed to take independent advice to increase its carbon pollution reduction target and has been blocking progress in the loss and damage negotiations,” said CAN.
Canada was “dishonoured” with a special “Lifetime Unachievement Fossil Award” for its long-standing efforts in preventing this process from making a sufficient contribution to the fight against climate change.
Throughout the COP19, the CAN every day awarded one country for blocking the negotiations of parties. Yesterday, the first Fossil of the Day was awarded to Singapore for blocking the development of framework which needs to be agreed in 2015.
The Second place goes to the US as the country was blocking progress on a Long-Term Finance pathway as well as an agreement on the relationship between the COP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and opposing the establishment of an international mechanism on loss and damage.
Saudi Arabia won the third place of Fossil of the Day as it was asking governments for financial compensation “when they have one the highest GDPs in the world for selling the substance that caused climate change in the first place.” But Saudi Arabia is not interested in financial compensation. “They just want to poison the negotiations. They are not fooling anybody.”
The CAN awarded “Ray of the Day” to Chile. The Alliance of Independent Latin American and Caribbean States (AILAC) has proven itself to be the gold standard in civil society engagement, moral integrity and simple logic by championing youth in the ADP and putting forward Intergenerational Equity.
The Fossil of the Day award was first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum.