From CK Nayak
DUBAI, Dec 12: Licypriya Kangujam, a minor climate activist from Manipur, stormed onto the stage at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) here on Tuesday demanding an end to the use of all fossil fuels.
The 12-year-old girl received a standing ovation from the participants and praise from the chair as she delivered a short speech to protest the use of fossil fuels.
She also held a sign above her head that read, “End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future.”
Protests were allowed at the COP28 summit but with prior permission and at designated places with fixed dates and times. But Kangujam’s vocal demonstration on the stage while the meeting was on was unprecedented in the very tightly controlled United Arab Emirates.
COP28 Director-General Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi, who was speaking then, said he admired the young girl’s enthusiasm and encouraged the audience present at the event to give her another round of applause. She was later escorted away by the security personnel.
The activist from Manipur posted the video of the event on X, saying: “They detained me for over 30 minutes after this protest. My only crime: Asking to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, the top cause of the climate crisis today. Now they kicked me out of COP28.”
In another post on X, she wrote, “What is the reason to cease my badge for protesting against fossil fuels? If you’re really standing against fossil fuels, then you must support me and you must immediately release my badges. This is a gross violation and abuse of Child Rights in the UN premises which is against the UN principle. I have the right to raise my voice at the UN.”
Protests organised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch received orders 10 minutes before the event which said no guarantee can be given for the security of the demonstrators. Mansoor, the recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, was repeatedly jailed for a decade in the UAE for seeking a free press and democratic freedoms in the autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms.
Phasing out fossil fuels has been an ongoing debate at the COP28 with some 200 countries having joined in trying to resolve the issue. About 60,000 delegates from 190 nations are a part of this year’s climate conference in Dubai.
Licypriya is a special envoy of Timor Leste, a Southeast Asian nation highly vulnerable to natural disasters associated with droughts, floods, landslides, and soil erosion. Increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased heavy rainfall events increase the impacts of climate change for the country.