COP23 - 2017

COP23: Fossil of the day

By: Claudia Steinacker

Entrance of World Conference Center Bonn, where the Fossil of the Day award is presented each day at 6pm

The “Fossil of the Day” Awards exist since 1999 and are an initiative of the Climate Action Network (CAN) to ironically honor those parties, countries or organisations which act in a bad manner, hindering the progress of the negotiations at COP and counteracting the common will to achieve the climate target set in the Paris Agreement. Aiming for the attention of delegates and directly pointing fingers at the “bad ones”, the Award “winner” of every conference day is announced at 6 pm in the Bula zone in the foyer of the
World Conference Center.

“To those who are the best at being the worst, to those who do the most to do the least”

Fossil of the Day Awards at Bula Zone 1

In the first week of the COP23 the following bodies have been awarded with the ironic “Fossil of the Day” price:

Day 1:

  • United States “We are still in” movement as exceptional non-ironic “Ray of the Day” for giving hope for the continuation of joint climate action

Day 2:

  • Australia for approving and funding fossil fuel mines which threaten habitats, such as the Great Barrier Reef, and increase emissions
  • Poland for trying to convert the EU Emissions Trading Scheme into a coal power subsidy scheme instead of phasing out from fossil fuels

Day 3:

  • France for postponing their nuclear energy phase down target (to reduce nuclear energy in the national energy mix from 75% to 50% by 2020)

Day 4:

  • Developed Countries for refusing to include pre-2020 actions into the COP23 agenda
  • Japan for promoting nuclear and coal technologies in developing countries within the Japan-United States Strategic Energy Partnership
  • Kuwait for voting to exclude observers from a session on Loss and Damage within the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI)

Day 5:

  • International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for negotiating on carbon offsets and biofuels for this sector in private

Day 6:

  • Australia, Canada, European Union and United States for forgetting about the solidarity principle when it comes to loss and damage finance

 

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