To Boot Big Polluters From COP24, Global Groundswell Backs "People's Demands for Climate Justice"

With the United Nations conference known as COP24 starting next week, Rep.-elect Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) drew attention Monday to a document demanding that government delegates to the summit recognize that the "urgency of the climate crisis requires a just response centered on human rights, equity, and justice."

Entitled The People's Demands for Climate Justice and endorsed by groups including 350.org, Corporate Europe Observatory, and Focus on the Global South, the international call presents the following to-do list for governments to implement in order to achieve the kind of bold transformation needed to save planet Earth:

• Keep fossil fuels in the ground.
• Reject false solutions that are displacing real, people-first solutions to the climate crisis.
• Advance real solutions that are just, feasible, and essential.
• Honor climate finance obligations to developing countries.
• End corporate interference in and capture of the climate talks.
• Ensure developed countries honor their "Fair Shares" for largely fueling this crisis.

Specifically, the demands include an immediate ban on new fossil fuel exploration and a moratorium on fracking, as well as a commitment to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

The unified call also stresses the need for governments to support commitments to agroecological practices and back other community-led climate solutions. In addition, there must be reparations for those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and corporations that engaged in misinformation campaigns and used their power to influence climate policy must be held accountable.

"These are the People's Demands, our call to government delegates, grounded in people's movements from every continent, that demand with one voice what is our birthright: climate justice," the groups declare.

As of this writing, the demands have been supported by over 179,000 signatures spanning 128 countries and 227 organizations.

COP24 will focus on hammering out guidelines for how governments will implement the landmark Paris climate accord, and, as Action Aid, one of the convening organizations behind the vision statement, declares, "If governments don't agree on strong guidelines for the Paris Agreement this year, our next chance won't be until 2023. That's far too late for millions of people around the world, many of whom are already experiencing climate change's devastation."

"So right now," the group adds, "we must demonstrate a groundswell of support for the People's Demands for Climate Justice--a joint global call to government delegates demanding that this year's climate talks actually lead to meaningful, just climate solutions."

Arguing recently that "the tide is turning from Big Polluter obstruction toward people-powered solutions," Corporate Accountability Europe said, "The People's Demands are a bold plan to show a united global front demanding climate justice and an end to the harmful impact of Big Polluters. And you're the key: When thousands of us join together, we're a force to be reckoned with. "

COP 24, known formally as the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will run from Dec. 2 to Dec. 14 in Katowice, Poland.