Pro-Palestinian activists take to the stage at UN Bonn climate conference 

A session of UN climate negotiations in the German city of Bonn was suspended yesterday after climate activists took to the conference stage and demonstrated against Israel’s war in Gaza, Reuters reported police saying.

The Bonn Climate Change Conference is designed to prepare decisions for adoption at the COP29 gathering in Azerbaijan in November.

Climate Action Network activists raised a Palestinian flag on the conference stage and a banner reading: “No business as usual during a genocide”, before they were escorted out by the UN security service, a video of the protest showed.

As the @UNFCCC Bonn Climate Conference kicks off, protesters take to the stage with a Palestine flag 🇵🇸 So far, the @UNFCCC has failed to highlight the connection between militarism and climate crisis – this has to change. #JuneClimateMeetings #SB60 pic.twitter.com/MWjzf1T9dE

— The Military Emissions Gap (@milemissionsgap) June 3, 2024

Bonn police said they planned no further investigations or measures following the incident.

Climate Action Network said activists Tasneem Essop and Anabella Rosemberg had demonstrated peacefully in a personal capacity. Protesters say the UN has failed to highlight the connection between militarism and the climate crisis.

The office of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change declined to comment.

The November meeting in Baku will test governments’ appetite to fight climate change after a bumper year of elections from the European Union, the US and Britain to India and South Africa.

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