Today more than a million of signatures for the petition to cancel the “dirty” subsidies were delivered to heads of states on the Earth Summit in Rio and on the G20 meeting. Massive 24-hours wave of support with hash-tag #EndFossilFuelSubsidies ran down Twitter.
18th June 2012 – Today, when the world leaders opened the G20 meeting and has been arriving for taking part into the Earth Summit in Rio [1] they received more than 1 million signatures from all over the world calling to cancel subsidization of coal, gas and oil production.
Petition’s deliveries were held in Rio de Janeiro and in 4 capitals of G20 countries – Sidney, London, New-York and New Deli. During these events big screens were used to broadcast the 24-hour storm of support of this campaign in Twitter. Thousands users of the network from different countries sent massages to politicians and celebrities calling to stop subsidizing fossil fuels and use that money on ecology friendly projects. All the massages had the same hash-tag #EndFossilFuelSubsidies. In total, more than 100,000 messages were sent in 24 hours, some of them – from politicians ans celebrities.
«Globally, subsidies on fossil fuels amount to about 1 trillion $ which, in the least, is 6 times more than investments into renewable power generation, – says Yuliya Makliuk, Russian Speaking World Coordinator at 350.org. – This state of affairs is beneficial for extracting companies whose expenses are partially covered by taxes. But the tax-payers prefer their money to be used for either development of clean energy engineering or other socially important areas as education or healthcare.»
According to the International Energy Agency ending fossil fuels subsidies would allow to reach the 50 % reduction of CO2 emissions that is necessary for prevention of disastrous consequences of climate change [2].
«Subsidizing of fuel fossils is one of the main obstructions for development of renewable power generation and for increase of energy efficiency – Andriy Martyniuk says, the Head of NGO working group on climate change, Ukraine. – Also subsidies stimulate consummation of fossil fuels which leads to climate change.»
«In Russia subsidies are used mainly for stimulation of new fields’ development including on Arctic, – Mikhail Babenko, Ph.D. in Economics, Coordinator of the oil and gas section of the Global arctic program WWF thinks. – Russia has huge potential for energy conservation. If our country used its energy recourses as effectively as Canada, Sweden or Norway do, it would save more than 200 mln tons of oil equivalent which amounts to about 30% from all energy consumption in Russia and 100% – in Great Britain.»
The present situation with subsidies also leads to intensification of social inequality by contributing to huge corporations benefiting from people. Apart from that fossil fuels production is traditionally associated with such problems as dangerous work conditions, underpayment, and also high workers injury rate.
Information for editor
Pictures from events: http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org
Contact details: Yuliya Makliuk, Russian Speaking World Coordinator at 350.org, Kiyv, Ukraine, [email protected], +38 097 144 03 12
Daniel Kessler, Media-coordinator of 350.org, USA, dk@350.org, +1 510-501-1779
Jamie Henn, The petition delivery coordinator in Rio, Brazil, jamie@350.org, +55(0)2181061948
The campaign initiators and partners: 350.org, Avaaz, Climate Reality Project, EarthDayNetwork, FriendsoftheEarthInternational, Global Exchange, GreenForAll, GreenpeaceInternational, GreenpeaceAustralia, and GreenpeaceNewZealand, League of Conservation Voters, NaturalResourceDefenseCouncil, OilChangeInternational, Oxfam, Quercus, SumOfUs, WildAid, WorldWildlifeFund.
[1] The Earth Summit in Rio, or UN Conference on sustainable development, or Rio +20 – international conference of heads of states regarding matters of sustainable development and green economy. It is one of the most important political “environmental” events of a year. http://www.uncsd2012.org/
[2]Facts on scale and consequences of subsidizing in Russian http://world.350.org/russian/2012/06/субсидии-факты/ and in English
http://endfossilfuelsubsidies.org/why/
The text of petition to cancel fossil fuels subsidizing in Russian http://350.org/rio-RU and in English
Information about the campaign in Russian http://world.350.org/russian/subsidies/ and in English http://endfossilfuelsubsidies.org
Information about the wave of support in Twitter in Russian http://world.350.org/russian/twitter-волна/ and in English http://endfossilfuelsubsidies.org/twitterstorm/
Note: In May of this year the cancellation of fossil fuel subsidies was discussed on G20 meeting, though countries made no move yet. On the Earth Summit in Rio matters of sustainable development would be discussed and this matter has to be one of the most important.
Considering that cancellation of subsidizing of traditional energy sources production may become a threat for poor societies, this process has to be followed by addressed financial aid and implementation of alternative sources of energy. People working in traditional energy sources production should gradually be reeducated for work in renewable power generation with decent working conditions.