SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — He pedaled thousands of miles from Sweden to Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh hotel on the Red Sea to deliver a message: Stop climate change.
They took away activist Dorothee Hildebrandt, 72, and her pink electric bike, which she affectionately names Miss Piggy, after the temperamental character on The Muppet Show. It traversed Europe and the Middle East until it reached Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
His project is to raise awareness and urge world leaders gathered at the annual United Nations climate convention known as COP27 to take concrete action to prevent climate change, he said. Greenhouse fuel projects continue to rise and scientists say the amount of heat-trapping fuels wants to be cut almost in part until 2030 to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement’s temperature limitation targets.
Since his arrival a week ago, Hildebrandt and his electric motorcycle have a must-have at the top. From a friend’s space where she is staying, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the convention center, she rides her motorcycle to COP27 each and every one. Day, meet other activists and attend events. Many need to take pictures with her at the convention site.
“They want to avoid climate change,” Hildebrandt says of world leaders. “Even if it’s awkward. “
“It’s uncomfortable for me. . . that long journey,” he told The Associated Press. But he then sought to show that if there is a will, “you can do it,” he said.
Historically, climate talks in the past have seen very large protests at the end of the first week of the two-week summit, drawing thousands. This year has been quite discreet, with small and sporadic manifestations during the first week. Activists have blamed maximum travel charges, accommodation and restrictions in the remote Egyptian city for restricting the number of protesters.
Born in the central German city of Kassel, Hildebrandt says she was given her first motorcycle at age 10 and never stopped pedaling. In 1978, she moved to Sweden to marry her ex-husband.
He retired in 2015. Su activism and his motorcycle, which he documents on social media, is for young people and long-lived generations around the world, he says. A sign on his motorcycle reads: “Long-term cycling and peace. “
In it from Katrineholm, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Stockholm, the Swedish capital, he founded “GrandmasForFuture – Katrineholm” in the city. Among other things, the organization focuses on raising awareness about climate change.
Hildebrandt says he also needs Western industrialized countries to pay for the destruction they have caused, a challenge called loss and damage, over repairing the big polluters in the global south who have been hardest hit.
Unhappy with the final results of the last meteorological conference, COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, she saw it in Sharm el-Sheikh.
As of July 1, Hildebrandt cycled through 17 countries, covering 8228 kilometers (5112 miles), averaging about 80 kilometers (49 miles) during the day. whether it’s fans and other people he met along the way.
In the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, his motorcycle broke down. A cyclist, who works in tourism in the city, took Hildebrandt and his motorcycle to a mechanic to repair it, and she was able to continue.
And in Lebanon, he took taxis from the port city of Tripoli to Beirut for safety. Then he had a mandatory consultant with a vehicle and a motive force to reach the Jordanian border through Syria.
“I may have used my motorcycle all over Syria, but the prices would have been too high for me,” he said.
Even in Sinai, the local government banned him from cycling from the port of Nuweiba in Sharm el-Sheikh for his safety, he said.
Still, she’s convinced she got his message.
On Thursday, he invited him to ride a motorcycle with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, an avid cyclist. He asked the president about the lack of giant protests, compared to previous summits. He said el-Sisi said protests are not banned. in Egypt.
“Everyone can demonstrate in Cairo and Sharm el-Sheikh,” he told her, Hildebrandt told her.
COP27 marked a year of repression of dissent in Egypt, where maximum public demonstrations are well banned by the authorities.
After the summit ends on Nov. 18, Hildebrandt will travel by bike to Cairo and then to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria before heading to the Israeli port of Haifa and from there to Greece.
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