The Climate Action Network (CAN), an international network of environmental organisations, awarded the negative prize "Fossil of the Day" to Israel at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai on 10 December. The Wuppertal Institute is one of more than 1,500 members of the network, but was neither involved in the wording, nor in the awarding of the prize, nor was it even informed in advance about the awarding of the prize to Israel.

"The Wuppertal Institute expressly distances itself from the awarding of this negative prize to Israel and also explicitly from the wording used by the Climate Action Network. Regardless of CAN's statements, which we do not endorse in any way, we consider it utterly wrong to link climate protection issues with the Middle East conflict," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Fischedick, President and Scientific Managing Director of the Wuppertal Institute, and adds: "We firmly and unequivocally oppose all forms of violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism."

In response to the awarding of the negative prize, the Wuppertal Institute is suspending its membership of the Climate Action Network with immediate effect, until the events that led to the publication of the text have been fully clarified. Michael Dedek, Administrative Managing Director of the Wuppertal Institute, says: "Due to the drastic content of the publication, we as a scientific institute cannot and do not want to continue to support the Climate Action Network – neither through our participation, nor through membership fees or in any other way – until all necessary information is available and we can ensure that such or similar incidents are not repeated. We will decide whether to remain in the network or to leave it for good once we have all the necessary information."