Live from Copenhagen: Antinuclear action at the litte mermaid
Nuclear power masks real solutions to climate crisis
11.12.2009 |Joint Press Release dont-nuke-the-climate.org
Antinuclear action at the little mermaid
At noon, the NGOs placed a radiation-protection mask on Copenhagen’s famous “Little Mermaid” in order to illustrate the dangers of the nuclear industry and to emphasize the necessity to phase out nuclear power.
Charlotte Mijeon of Sortir du Nucleaire France, said: “Just as the Denmark’s beloved mermaid is wearing a mask - we must all remember that nuclear power hinders the fight against global warming by masking the real solutions like solar, wind and wave power and depriving them from the major funding they deserve.”
Representatives also denounced greenwash attempts from their respective nuclear industries: Claire Greensfelder of the International Forum on Globalization in the United States added: “During the Copenhagen Summit, decision-makers need not only to agree on ambitious climate targets, but also to refuse to accept and provide funding for false solutions such as nuclear power, “clean coal” and industrialized bio or agro-fuels.”
Sabine Bock, coordinator of energy and climate protection for Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) said: “Nuclear energy has proven in the past that it is a threat not only to our health and the environment, but also to human rights. In our work at WECF with local communities, we have encountered severe health problems and human rights abuses of populations due to the harmful effects of nuclear energy and radiation. We can’t understand why governments still promote this dangerous technology rather than taking the opportunity to develop safe and sustainable new, renewable, and clean energy solutions.”
“Regrettably, an increasing number of states actually wish that nuclear power could be labelled as a solution to climate change,” added Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense Russia, “If this energy system finds a place in the next agreement, then some States could attain their emissions cuts targets by selling reactors to developing countries. This is a false solution on two accounts:
- By investing in a carbon offset in a developing country, the investing country is not actually making any effort to reduce their own production of greenhouse gases, thus avoiding the essential question of conservation.
- the CDM would make nuclear power eligible for new, large amounts of public financing – financing that is much much better invested in new, energy efficient, safe and clean technologies.
Finally, Karin Wurzbacher of Umweltinstitut München emphasized the major danger of massive new nuclear subsidies: “In addition to spreading an extremely complex and expensive technology all over the world, major nuclear energy development would increase the access to nuclear weapons capable materials and the serious danger of illegal nuclear weapons proliferation would dramatically increase. "Pushing for nuclear as a climate solution is a shame", concluded Peer de Rijk of WISE
The “Don’t Nuke the Climate!” campaign includes more than 350 organizations in 45 countries around the world. Member organizations are campaigning for a global nuclear phase-out and calling attention to the fact that nuclear power is not only far too dangerous (due to radioactive waste, the risk of major accidents and the potential for proliferation), but also new construction and development would be much too slow to address the climate emergency. Finally, nuclear power is just too expensive and inappropriate for meeting the energy needs of the Global South. Should this technology be included in a climate agreement, it would deprive real solutions (e.g. energy efficiency and renewable energies) from much-needed financing. Resorting to nuclear power would doom the fight against global warming to fail.
Citizens from all countries are still invited to sign the « Don’t Nuke the Climate ! », petition -- available in 10 languages at www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org and already supported by more than 50,000 people all over the world.
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Photos:
available on : ftpperso.free.fr – login : sdnphotos – public09 and onwww.flickr.com/photos/43160621@N08/sets
Contacts:
- Charlotte Mijeon, Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire" (France): + 33 6 75 36 20 20 charlotte.mijeon@sortirdunucleaire.fr- Peer De Rijk, WISE: + 31 6 20 000 626 ; wiseamster@antenna.nl
- Vladimir Slivyak, Ecodefense (Russia): +45 51 40 05 27 ; ecodefense@gmail.com
- Claire Greensfelder, International Forum on Globalization: +1 510 917 5468 or + 45 53 99 59 77 (Danish mobile); cgreensfelder@ifg.org
- Andrea Cocco, Legambiente (Italy): +45 53 99 74 25 ; a.cocco@legambiente.eu
- Sabine Bock, WECF: +49 176 22 82 74 69; sabine.bock@wecf.eu
