Over 500 people took to the streets of Cape Town on Wednesday.
They are from various civil society organisations including the Southern Africa Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, Fossil Free South Africa, The Natural Justice, African Climate Alliance, The Green Connection, Project 90 by 2030, Greenpeace Africa, Earthlife Africa, Extinction Rebellion, Green Anglicans, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, The Social Change Assistance Trust and Masifundise Development Trust.
They took a Memorandum to Parliament, concerned about dependence on nuclear energy, oil and gas expansion, clean coal, carbon capture, industrial agriculture and factory farming.
“These false solutions exacerbate inequality and fossil fuel dependence, and will result in greater extreme climate impacts” said the group, in a memo.
They are concerned about increased loss of biodiversity, and pollution of air, soil, water, and reduced ecosystem services (e.g. clean water), leading to negative health outcomes.
They also pointed out the unequal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable energy, especially for the vulnerable.
The group’s initiative is known as the “No Faith in False Solutions Campaign” with a focus on challenging, opposing, and providing evidence- based alternatives to what the group calls “false solutions commonly presented as legitimate climate solutions.”
They want parliamentarians to convene and engage them around a phase out plan of fossil fuels.
Picture: Supplied