Montreal: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is bringing a ferocious, life-like dinosaur to COP15, UN’s biodiversity conference, to urge more climate action from global leaders.
‘Frankie The Dino’ is welcomed by fellow climate activists, world leaders and civil society, while governments from around the world are coming together to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss.
‘Frankie The Dino’ is the hero of a climate change campaign “Don’t Choose Extinction” launched by the UNDP in 2021.
The campaign’s hero film features a computer-generated Utharaptor bursting into the iconic General Assembly Hall, telling an audience of shocked and slightly terrified diplomats and dignitaries that “it is time humans stopped making excuses and started making changes” to address climate change.
The film instantly became a cultural phenomenon and a rallying cry for climate action. The campaign film has been viewed by more than two billion people across the world till date.
While visiting COP15 on Monday to urge world leaders to protect our planet and stop subsidising fossil fuels, ‘Frankie The Dino’ made a special appearance this weekend and took to the streets of Montreal, joining the March for Biodiversity and Human Rights along with the 80-plus organisations in #CollectivCOP15.
Frankie also appeared on stage at the United Nations Association in Canada’s ‘One Earth — One Choice Environment Festival’ in Montreal, a youth and environment festival.
While at COP15, ‘Frankie The Dino’, said, “We are facing a dual climate and nature crisis. Climate change and biodiversity loss are two profound threats facing humanity. And they are intricately connected. Nature has declined more extensively over the past 50 years than any other time in human history, while global warming patterns continue to accelerate.”
“So rather than paying for your extinction, let’s save nature and help save humanity.”
–IANS