File Photo: The headquarters of oil giant ExxonMobil in Machelen in northern Brussels, October 27, 2012 (Photo: Reuters)
Climate activists and authors Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein will host on Saturday a mock trial of ExxonMobil at the 'People’s Climate Summit' in Montreuil, a short metro ride just north of the centre of Paris.
"McKibben and Klein will interview a series of star witnesses who can speak to Exxon’s history of deception and the climate impacts that communities around the world are now experiencing because of the way Exxon has prevented climate action," said an e-mail sent to Ahram Online from 350.org NGO.
Witnesses and judges will include former Philippines climate negotiator Yeb Saño; former lead NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen; actor Peter Sarsgaard; journalist and author Antonia Juhasz; Cindy Baxter of Exxonsecrets.org; Pacific Climate Warriors Kathy Jetnil-Kijner and Milañ Loeak; Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation representative Eriel Deranger; Joydeep Gupta of Third Pole Network; and French activist and journalist Eros Sana, the NGO added.
McKibben, the founder of 350.org, says, “The rapidly evolving Exxon scandal may represent the next great phase of the climate movement. Many of its victims are represented here in Paris, so it’s the perfect opportunity to collect testimony to the damage that 25 years of Exxon’s deception has wrought.”
McKibben is an American environmentalist, author and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the anti-carbon campaign group 350.org.
Klein is a Canadian author and filmmaker known for her criticism of neo-liberal globalisation and of corporate capitalism. She is best known for the bestsellers No Logo and the Shock doctrine, as well as the documentary film The Take, about Argentina’s occupied factories that was written by her and directed by her husband Avi Lewis.
Negotiators from 195 nations are haggling in Paris over a universal accord to slash greenhouse-gas emissions, but the G77 group of developing countries plus China have warned there will be no deal without financing.
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