In the morning, around 2000 people (instead of the announced 5000) from all over Germany as well as some activists from abroad, many in costume, had heeded the call by the association “No Climate Change.” It wanted to drive out the “evil spirits of the climate” with a cheerful protest at the start of the Carnival season. Several Attac groups had called for the protest alongside Bündnis 90/ The Greens, Die Linke, the DKP and BUND (German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation).

Students Jeanine Langmann and Jeanine Burger from the Department of Anthropology of the Americas and Ethnology at Bonn University took part. “In our studies we hear a lot about the consequences of climate change in the Andes,” they said, explaining their motivation. Less precipitation on an extreme scale is harming llamas, report the young women and they had made llama costumes out of cardboard boxes.

As well as the ghost ship from an action group coalition from East Lower Saxony near the Asse nuclear waste storage facility, protesting against the use of nuclear power to meet energy demand and a polar bear speared by a CO2 arrow by the Danish artist Jens Galschiot, it was the 100 metre by six metre long protest banner of two British activists that drew the most attention. On it, they accused US President, Donald Trump, of genocide on the world climate.

After the Britons were thwarted in their attempt to hang the banner from the South Bridge on Thursday, it was carried through the city by dozens of volunteers. Co-organiser Dagmar Paternoga from Attac in Bonn said she was pleased with the peaceful protest. “There are certainly eager negotiators at work at the conference. However, we are denouncing the inactivity of governments in protecting the environment,” she told the GA. The German government in particular is doing much too little to achieve the climate protection targets it set itself.

In the meantime, a second protest march on “World Climate Action Day” was starting in the afternoon at the Münsterplatz with significantly fewer participants. It had been called by an association of 21 left-wing and alternative groups. Co-organiser Hannes Stockert from the MLPD called the Bonn conference a “fraudulent sham”, after the G-20 states had not agreed to stop using fossil fuels and nuclear energy at the Hamburg summit.

Stockert said they had unfortunately not been able to agree on a joint demonstration. He urged that all other differences take second place, because of the challenges of climate change. However, the Bonn demonstrators were agreed on one thing: protection of the climate should not be left to governments alone.

On Sunday, water sports enthusiasts demonstrated at “Green Paddle 2017” on the Rhine in front of the WCCB against progressive climate change, which particularly threatens island states such as Fiji. (Original text: Martin Wein. Translated by Kate Carey.)