21 April 2010 | News | Climate Justice and Energy
Taking Charge
Evo Morales at the opening ceremony of the Peoples´ Conference on Climate Change
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“If the developed countries had respected the Kyoto Protocol and had agreed to reduce their polluting emissions in a substantial way at a national level, this conference wouldn´t have been necessary”, said on Tuesday Bolivian President Evo Morales at the opening ceremony of the World Peoples´ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
At Tiquipaya Stadium, close to Cochabamba, Morales said: “as most Heads of State and Government didn´t listen to the people (at the UN Conference on Climate Change held in Copenhagen last December), the social movements were forced to gather here”.
Thousands of people from around the world met at the Stadium to be present at the opening ceremony of the Peoples´ Conference on Climate Change. Five representatives of social movements from each continent spoke, and Evo Morales closed the ceremony. The Bolivian official delegation was also made up by Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera and Foreign Affairs Minister David Choquehuanca.
Morales said that the “fundamental cause of the destruction of Planet Earth is capitalism”, and added that “as peoples who inhabit and respect Mother Earth, we have the right, the ethics and morals to say that the main enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism”.
Real World Radio/Radioagencia Noticias de Planalto
Photo: RMR/RNP
