November, 17 2017, 08:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lindsay Meiman,Senior U.S. Communications Specialist,lindsay@350.org,us-comms@350.org,+1 347 460 9082,New York, USA
After COP23: "The Ambition Race Is On"
BONN, Germany
As the UN Climate Talks wrap-up in Germany, campaigners with 350.org are looking ahead to a year that will dramatically accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy for all.
350.org Strategy and Communications Director, Jamie Henn issued the following the statement:
"There's one word that needs to define the year ahead: ambition. 2018 will be all about accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy for all. Movements will do our part by stopping new fossil fuel projects, ending dirty finance, and getting as many towns, cities, and regions as possible to commit to 100% renewable energy for all.
"Trump tried to derail these talks by pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, but COP23, under the Fijian presidency, has put the process firmly back on the tracks bringing into sharp focus the climate urgency the planet is experiencing. Now it's all about speed. More ambition will never come from inside the climate talks, it has to come from the streets. Our job is to get out there and demand the fossil free world that science and justice demand.
"The real news coming out of these talks is what happened outside the negotiating halls: massive protests at Germany's open pit coal mines with Pacific islanders standing in solidarity, governments joining a new initiative to power past coal, Norway's push to ditch oil and gas investments, and the emergence of non-state actors as a powerful force for change. The fight between fossils and renewables is underway and it's a fight we intend to win."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
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Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
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