Media release - 16 December, 2009, Wellington
For immediate release

Aotearoa camps out in support of massive Copenhagen summit protest:
Camp Out to Stop the COP Out

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa gets underway in the Hutt Valley as this morning, people across the country awake to the news of the ‘Reclaim Power’ climate justice protest in Copenhagen.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa, is five days of free workshops, sustainable living, grassroots democracy and direct action. Climate Camp aims to build a people’s movement that can and will achieve justice on climate change.

Like those ‘pushing for climate justice‘ in Denmark, participants of Climate Camp aren't waiting around for another fifteen years of international climate conferences and fully support the objectives of protestors at the Bella conference centre. Camp for climate action Aotearoa condemns the acts of violence perpetrated by the police against protestors in Copenhagen and supports those arrested while attempting to gain entrance to the Bella centre.

“Just like the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, the Copenhagen talks are part of the problem, not the solution. Both put profit before people, both are infested with polluter friendly loopholes put there by the profiteers of climate change itself and as a result, neither are capable of achieving climate justice. Privatising the worlds remaining rainforests and the atmosphere itself won’t stop climate change, but it will provide billions in corporate welfare for the companies that have caused it.” said Gary Cranston, climate camp participant.

“Leading climate scientists like NASA's James Hansen have long understood that the UN talks are doomed to fail because they don't seek to address the root cause of climate change - the pursuit of economic growth at any cost. This Western development model that we follow here in Aotearoa has not only failed, it has brought us to the edge of catastrophe. There is no acknowledgement of this inside the climate talks.”

“We think that people who are serious about confronting climate change need to get together to implement the real solutions, and that's what we're here to do at Climate Camp. Ordinary people have the power to stop the government and big business from throwing away our future for continued profit. We invite everybody in Aotearoa to come to climate camp and join the global movement for climate justice that will keep fossil fuels in the ground and address the climate crisis.” said Gary Cranston

ENDS

Notes for editors: Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa is the New Zealand based contact for Climate Justice Action network, the network of groups involved in the ‘Reclaim Power’ climate justice protest in Copenhagen.

For more information see: www.climatecamp.org.nz and www.climate-justice-action.org

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