Renowned Canadian environmentalist Tzeporah Berman attending COP25 in Madrid

Climate Breakthrough Project award winner, Stand.earth international program director available for media interviews

MADRID, SPAIN — Renowned Canadian environmentalist and Stand.earth international program director Tzeporah Berman will be available for media interviews at UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP25) in Madrid, Spain from 2 December to 15 December 2019.

As one of the 2019 winners of the $2M Climate Breakthrough Project award, Berman and Stand.earth are launching a global Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty that aims to stop all fossil fuel expansion globally and manage the decline of fossil fuel production in order to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees, and a SAFE Cities campaign encouraging local governments worldwide to address the global climate crisis by passing land use ordinances against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure.

In addition, Berman can speak on the following issues that will be addressed at COP25:

• Oil and gas: On 5 December 2019, at 15:00 (3 p.m. CEST / 9 a.m. EST / 6 a.m. PST), Stand.earth, Oil Change International, and the Global Gas and Oil Network will hold a press conference to release the report “Oil, Gas and the Climate: An Analysis of Oil and Gas Industry Plans for Expansion and Compatibility with Global Emission Limits” that reveals how the expansion plans for North America’s gas and oil industry are incompatible with the Paris Agreement. RSVP for the press conference or get call-in details. Berman can also comment on the climate hypocrisy of Canada’s federal leaders for purchasing the Trans Mountain oil sands pipeline.

• Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative: On 9 December 2019 at 14:30 (2:30 p.m. CEST / 8:30 a.m. EST / 5:30 a.m. PST) in the UN Press Briefing Room MOCHA (Hall 10), Stand.earth, Amazon Watch and members of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative will join Indigenous leaders to hold a press conference and release the report “A Global Rainforest Gem Under Threat: The Amazon Sacred Headwaters” that reveals how Indigenous territories in Ecuador and Peru are under threat from oil drilling, mining, and other industrial projects. RSVP for the press conference or get call-in details. Indigenous federations released a declaration in October urging governments and investors to halt new oil and gas projects in the critical headwaters region of the Amazon River, which would expand oil spills and toxic contamination and result in new roads that are a gateway to large-scale deforestation.

• Shipping industry, LNG, and heavy fuel oil: Stand.earth is calling on the cruise sector and shipping industry to transition away from burning ultra-dirty heavy fuel oil (HFO) ahead of the International Maritime Organization global ban on high-sulfur fuel beginning in 2020. The organization is also calling for a moratorium on the use of scrubbers, or Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems, which will allow for the continued use of HFO as ship fuel after 1 January 2020. Berman can speak to how the shipping industry’s transition from HFO to liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a false solution that will not help the industry reduce its massive contribution to the global climate crisis.

• Fashion industry and carbon emissions: Stand.earth’s “Filthy Fashion Climate Scorecard” released in October 2019 ranks the climate commitments of 45 top fashion brands, revealing that despite committing to be industry leaders by joining one or more global climate initiatives, nearly all of the companies fail to reach the emissions reductions needed to align with the Paris Agreement and avert the worst impacts of climate change. Berman can speak to Stand.earth’s campaign calling on the fashion industry to adequately address its supply chain (Scope 3) emissions by transitioning factories away from coal and other fossil fuels and on to renewable energy, which is especially important in countries like China, Turkey, Vietnam, and Bangladesh that are all considering significant coal expansion.

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Media contacts:

David Walsh, dave@coldreality.org, +34 691826764 (CET)

Virginia Cleaveland, media@stand.earth, +1 778 984 3994 in Canada, +1 510 858 9902 in United States (PST)