Environmental Groups Say G-7 Plan Will Lead to 'Climate Chaos'

As G-7 nations wrapped up the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Germany Thursday, international environmental and climate justice organizations slammed the talks for failing to make significant progress toward an adequate climate treaty.

Instead of a step in the right direction, Lucy Cadena of the world's largest grassroots environmental network Friends of the Earth said the talks in the city of Bonn only made “a commitment to climate chaos.” Oxfam Climate Change Policy Adviser Jan Kowalzig said avoidance of “crunch issues” serves to “only delay the inevitable.”

G7 Makes Commitment on Climate … to Climate Chaos, says @foeint 's Lucy Cadena on @ipsnews http://t.co/5P8xWTc5W2 pic.twitter.com/pnFlRvYmHg

— Friends of the Earth (@FoEint) June 11, 2015

The draft outcomes of the conference, which will be finalized as a climate treaty in Paris later this year, include a pledge to phase out fossil fuels over the course of the century, which climate advocates say will do too little too slowly to interrupt the catastrophic course of climate change.

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“Climate change is upon us, and every increase in temperature causes more heatwaves, droughts and floods, killing thousands of people,” Cadena, climate justice and energy coordinator for Friends of the Earth International, said in a statement. “If developed country governments continue to drag their feet at the U.N. negotiations instead of taking immediate action, millions of people will pay for it with their lives.”

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Climate activists staged protests calling for “energy revolution” during the closing sessions of the ten-day conference to pressure the world's wealthiest nations to move away from dirty energy like oil, gas, and coal toward renewable resources, but G-7 countries were unwilling to commit to a short-term shift from fossil fuel dependence.

Activists inside #Bonn UN #climate talks highlighting the deaths caused by climate inaction. #SB42 pic.twitter.com/rlGgdxLHi8

— Friends of the Earth (@foeeurope) June 11, 2015

International organizations have also highlighted public funding gaps in the fight against climate change, calling on G-7 leaders to step up their financing of environmental initiatives and fulfill their massive “climate debt” to developing countries, who suffer the most devastating effects of climate change largely created by the world's wealthiest nations.

“Political leaders need to give a clear steer on how to address the inadequacy of current emissions reductions pledges, but also on the urgent financial support needed for the most vulnerable countries and populations," said Oxfam's Kowalzig.

Video of closing press conf. of #SB42, the @UN climate conference that ended today http://t.co/FyOGkYnc7U #COP21 pic.twitter.com/dc0T9OiFiJ

— UNFCCC (@UNFCCC) June 11, 2015

A global movement under the banner “We are the energy revolution,” including Friends of the Earth International, has vowed to continue to campaign for urgent and transformational climate action in energy, food systems, and economies in the lead-up the U.N. climate talks in Paris expected to set an international climate agreement later this year.

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“People around the world are already implementing real, proven solutions—community-controlled, renewable energy systems,” Friends of the Earth's Cadena added. “The energy revolution has come of age, and our politicians must help implement it or fade into obsolescence along with the dirty energy systems they cling to.”