Over the night of the 2nd to 3rd December 2011, midway through the UN Climate Talks in Durban, South Africa, UK citizens will be camping out in a symbolic ‘climate refugee camp’ as an act of solidarity with all those around the world who are suffering from the diverse impacts of climate change.
The camp will be a way of communicating the message that climate change impacts are real, that many of the most vulnerable around the world are suffering from them already, that they will get much worse and one day we may all be climate refugees.
The London camp will coincide with the symbolic climate refugee camp in Durban, itself, over the same night. This will be attended by citizens from all around South Africa who will be taking part the next day in a massive mobilisation to mark the Global Day of Action on Climate, and who will demand climate justice from the delegates at the Climate Talks.
In London citizens marching in support of the South Africans will start from the ‘climate refugee’ camp and take the demand for climate justice from there to Parliament. Whilst we need a cooperative effort from all the countries represented together at the UN Climate Talks to achieve climate justice we also need the richer countries of the world like our own to acknowledge responsibility for our disproportionate share of the historical emissions from which many of the poorest around the world are already suffering, and to point the way forward by taking urgent and immediate action to radically reduce our emissions.
The camp will be both an opportunity to express solidarity with those who are suffering, or will suffer, the impacts of climate change and an attempt to make these impacts more ‘real’ to the wider public. Too often climate change is defined as a marginal issue when contrasted with things that seem to be having a more immediate effect on the lives of people in the UK, like rising fuel prices, or the economic downturn. We hope to provide a tangible, and visually effective representation of climate impacts to the media interested in reporting about climate issues in the context of the Durban Climate Talks.
Climate Justic March, Johannesburg 2009We expect the Friday evening at the camp to have a ‘vigil-type’ atmosphere and be an opportunity for concerned citizens to gain inspiration from this shared experience. We expect that many will come for the evening in addition to those who will actually stay to camp the night out. We will organise displays and performances that will help convey the message. We hope that others around the world may also be taking part in vigils for climate justice at the same time. In the morning the campers will be the committed core of the annual National Climate March, who will start the march from the camp or nearby, which will give that march an extra, symbolic, dimension.
