In a heated debate, also in the light of the recent Norway explosion, NGOs tried to fight against the inclusion of CCS and fossile fuel projects in the NDCs. One party that didn’t want to hear anything from the NGOs was Namibia. It pointed out that the “NGOs are just making noise” and that the Namibian delegation only wants to base decisions on “proper research”. This is why Namibia proposed to revoked the NGOs speaking rights and surprisingly convinced the chair to do so. This happened without a vote. NGOs thus suddenly found themselves frozen out of this important debate.
Attac, also speaking on behalf of WWF, Friends of the Earth, 350.org, Greenpeace and Indigenous environmental network, are furious: “The NGOs are here to present civil society and also the voters. Revoking the speaking rights means pushing out minorities, those without a voice, and the civil societies of the respective countries. This is unacceptable. If it was not for the fact that this is the last day and an agreement is necessary, we NGOs would take drastic measure to defend our speaking rights”
People are now wondering what kind of a result will come out of COP 25, now that some important stakeholders can no longer make their opinions heard in the debate.
