Trump is not my president: US students protest at COP22

Students and youths from the United States protested against Donald Trump at the COP22 venue here, urging the world to pressurise the US President-elect to respect the Paris climate agreement and work for climate justice.

"We are heartbroken from this election results as he (Trump) represents everything that we stand against. This is the person who is a businessman, a reality TV show actor and definitely not my President," Daniel Jubelirev, a student from the US and an observer at the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), told IANS.

The students protested under the banner of "Sustain Us", a youth, student and climate activist group.

The protest was joined by some students from other countries, with a "To Do list for the President-elect, that asks him to ensure climate justice, respect the Paris climate agreements, assure rights of indigenous people, conserve water, stop corporate ties that lead to climate degradation and stop racist politics.

"Switch sides, you are either with us or against us," said a protester.

Donald Trump - a climate change sceptic -- has threatened to cancel the Paris deal if he comes to power. This would mean the threshold achieved for the Paris Agreement would be jeopardised as America accounts for 17 per cent of the global emissions, the biggest chunk after China.

"This is our message to the civil society and the world that this person (Trump) does not represent us. We will continue our fight against such a government, because that's all we can do," said another protesting student from the US.

(Kushagra Dixit is at COP22, Marrakech. He can be reached at kushagra.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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