Azerbaijan G7 countries awarded negative prize at climate conference

SDA

15.11.2024 - 17:27

The "Fossil of the Day Award" is presented to the G7 countries during a demonstration at the UN Climate Summit COP29. Photo: Rafiq Maqbool/AP/dpa
The "Fossil of the Day Award" is presented to the G7 countries during a demonstration at the UN Climate Summit COP29. Photo: Rafiq Maqbool/AP/dpa
Keystone

At the World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan, the G7 countries were awarded the negative "Fossil of the Day" prize. The reason given was that the group of states had traveled to the conference without any concrete commitments to increase financial aid for poorer countries.

Keystone-SDA

The prize is awarded by the Climate Action Network, an umbrella organization of hundreds of climate and environmental organizations - including Greenpeace and Oxfam. On several days of the climate conference, it is presented in a humorous ceremony complete with a dramatic "Fossil of the Day" anthem, accompanied by boos.

The G7 states - i.e. the USA, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, Italy and the UK - would block progress towards the 1.5-degree target - and thus not prevent "us from joining the dinosaurs and becoming extinct", it was said in the explanatory statement. This refers to the internationally agreed target aimed at preventing the worst consequences of the climate crisis.