NETHERLANDS: ENVIRONMENTALISTS BUILD SYMBOLIC FLOOD WALL OUTSIDE CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE.

Record ID: 230908

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: ENVIRONMENTALISTS BUILD SYMBOLIC FLOOD WALL OUTSIDE CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE.
  • Date: 18th November 2000
  • Summary: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (NOVEMBER 18,2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: POLICE ON HORSES 0.05 2. TV: BANNER SAYING 'NO CO2' 0.10 3. MCU/PAN: FRENCH PROTESTERS SINGING 0.17 4. GV: PROTESTERS WITH BANNER READING 'NOT EVERYONE CAN SWIM' 0.23 5. MV: TWO PROTESTERS WITH BANNER SHOWING SWEDISH FLAG 0.31 6. MCU: SOUNDBITE (English) TONY JUNIPER, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL SAYING: "If governments fail here, their credibility will be seriously damaged. They will be exposed as being in the pocket of business, concerned only with their short term national economic interests and electoral prospects. Our message is simple - we must witness here real leadership and as a result outcomes that will reduce the emissions of gases that are warming our world." 0.49 7. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SHOVELING SAND INTO BAGS/ ROTESTERS HANDING BAG OF SAND FROM ONE TO THE OTHER/ PROTESTERS BUILDING DYKE WITH BAGS (6 SHOTS) 1.31 8. CU: SOUNDBITE (German) PROTESTER FROM AUSTRIA SAYING: "I am here to tell the leaders that they should finally do something, they should stop with their stupid talks that have lasted for more than ten years and take real measures." 1.45 9. CU: SOUNDBITE (French) PROTESTER FROM FRANCE SAYING: "I came to build the dyke to protect the earth, to make it better for the generation of the future and to stop it from getting worse." 1.59 10. MV/LAS: JAN PRONK, DUTCH ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE PLACING SAND BAG ON DYKE/ PRONK CLIMBING ONTO STAGE (2 SHOTS) 2.15 11. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAN PRONK, DUTCH ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE, SAYING: "We cannot build a dyke with words alone, we need to build a dyke with action being based on words which are agreed upon. This is an extremely good signal that it is possible to work together to build a dyke with words and deeds and follow-up action." 2.42 12. MV/TV/PAN: MAN LIFTING BAG, PLACING IT ON DYKE/ PEOPLE BUILDING DYKE (2 SHOTS) 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVA50MBPQEP2G2PIEQJQ3KVTJMP5
  • Story Text: Ministers from 180 countries arriving at climate change
    talks this weekend face more than the usual security cordon,
    thanks to protesters who on Saturday (November 18) erected a
    1. 5 metre-high wall in front of their meeting hall.



    Around 5,000 environmentalists from around the world
    erected the symbolic flood wall around the building using
    sandbags, an item all too familiar to those countries which
    have had to take emergency action in recent weeks to hold back
    flood water.

    The protest was aimed at governments meeting this week to
    thrash out the rules on implementing a three-year old
    agreement to cut the gas emissions thought to be a key cause
    of global warming. The talks are seen as a make-or-break
    chance for a U.N. climate pact struck in 1997 in Japan to cut
    the emissions.

    An Austrian man at the protest said: "I am here to tell
    the leaders that they should finally do something, they should
    stop with their stupid talks that have lasted for more than
    ten years and take real measures," A French protestor said she
    " came to build the dyke to protect the earth, to make it
    better for the generation of the future and to stop it from
    getting worse."
    To show his support, Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk,
    who is chairing the negotiations, joined activists in piling
    sandbags on to the wall before clambering up a makeshift
    platform to address the crowd.

    "We cannot build a dyke with words alone, we need to build
    a dyke with action being based on words which are agreed upon.

    This is an extremely good signal that it is possible to
    work together to build a dyke with words and deeds and
    follow-up action," he said.

    Diplomats have already spent one week in talks trying to
    sift from hundreds of pages of technical details the real
    political choices ministers will confront in the coming days.


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