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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 11 december 2018

Protesters disrupt US fossil fuel event at UN climate talks

By FRANK JORDANS gestad. Even as the Trump
Associated Press administration promoted
KATOWICE, Poland (AP) — coal abroad, new figures
Protesters disrupted a U.S. show coal consumption by
government event at Unit- the U.S. power grid this year
ed Nations climate talks will be the lowest since 1979
Monday, criticizing the as a wave of coal-fired
Trump administration’s pol- power plants shut down.
icy of backing the extrac- Andrew Light, a former U.S.
tion of fossil fuels that con- State Department official,
tribute to global warming. said the U.S. event was
About 100 people from unlikely to affect the land-
groups representing indig- mark Paris agreement to
enous peoples and youth limit global warming.
stood up and chanted Most of the world’s coun-
“Keep it in the ground” tries are signatories to the
near the beginning of the 2015 agreement, while
American presentation. As President Donald Trump
cameras swarmed around has said he will withdraw
them, some of the protest- the United States from it.
ers explained the extrac- “This event has the audi-
tion of coal, oil and natural ence of one person and
gas affects their communi- that is President Trump,”
ties. Youth and indigenous groups protest against fossil fuels during US-hosted event at the UN climate said Light, who is now a
The U.S. event, titled “U.S. talks in Katowice, Poland, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, as the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference senior adviser with the en-
Innovative Technologies takes place in the city. vironmental group World
Spur Economic Dynamism,” Associated Press Resources Institute.
took place on the sidelines sil fuels, including through soon as possible or risk cat- brand, a Norwegian fund He said the U.S. govern-
of the ongoing U.N. meet- hydraulic fracking. Speak- astrophic levels of global that manages $85 billion in ment’s arguments were
ing in Katowice, Poland. Af- ing at the event, Griffith warming by the end of the assets, said even highly effi- more likely to upset than
ter several minutes, the ac- warned against “alarmism” century. cient coal plants are highly win over other govern-
tivists left the room chant- over climate change, add- Investors, too, have backed damaging to the environ- ments represented at the
ing “Shame on you.” Their ing that “all energy sources a shift away from fossil fuels. ment and carbon capture talks in Katowice.
actions mirrored a similar are important, and they On Monday, 415 pension technology — touted by Over the weekend, the
protest during a U.S.-hosted will be utilized unapologeti- funds and insurance com- some as a way to pull emis- United States, Russia, Saudi
panel at last year’s U.N. cally.” panies, with over $32 trillion sions out of the air again — Arabia and Kuwait pre-
climate talks in Bonn, Ger- The panel’s premise — that in assets, called on govern- isn’t economical. vented endorsement of a
many. fossil fuels can be made ments to phase out coal- “Investors are not going scientific report on keep-
Wells Griffith, a Trump ad- “clean” through innova- fired power plants and put to be sold fake news on ing global warming below
ministration adviser at the tion — stands at odds with a meaningful price on car- coal, which seeks to mask 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7
Department of Energy, said recommendations from bon to help tackle climate the rapid decline of the degrees Fahrenheit) — the
after the interruption that scientists who say coun- change. U.S. coal industry and dis- most ambitious target in
the United States would tries should transition to re- Jan Erik Saugestad, the regards the solar and wind the 2015 Paris climate ac-
continue extracting fos- newable energy sources as chief executive of Store- growth markets,” said Sau- cord. q