Behind the scenes of the Philippines speech
COP19, day 1: Yeb Sano, the negotiator of the Philippines, announced a hunger strike for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan and spoke emotionally about the situation of his country, moving negotiators and civilians to tears.
By Youth Press Agency
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What most of the people may ignore is that after his speech he was accompanied by a group of young people to his next meeting, who wanted purely to express their solidarity.
The UN Security was previously informed and gave its approval. Some signs, which had been made for an action, were shown. They just had the names of the provinces damaged by the typhoon and one sign demanded: “How many more?”.
After a few seconds two members of the security “debadged” three of the holders: Graham Hallett and Maria Alejandra Escalante from Earth in Brackets, and Clémence Hutin from Young Friends of the Earth Europe. Some associations have already written a letter to Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC Executive Secretary) asking for the reconsideration of the de-badging.
The first week of COP19 has already ended, and nothing has changed: Christiana, at the intergenerational inquiry meeting of Thursday, said she cannot interfere with this decision.
We do hope the UN security change its decision and let these young people have their badges back, as they were simply expressing their support and solidarity.
