Greenpeace “Head of State” crashes Queen’s dinner to send a message to world leaders

by Mike Gaworecki

December 17, 2009

Tomorrow is the last day of the UN climate summit and, by all accounts, the negotiations have descended into complete chaos. The voice of civil society has been increasingly marginalized. There has been no leadership from the developed countries that created the climate crisis. The pleas for survival by developing countries have been ignored. So we’ve taken action to demand leadership in the final 24 hours in order to save these talks and establish a real deal in Copenhagen.

Greenpeace Head of State crashes Queen's dinner in Copenhagen
© Scanpix / Jens Norgaard Larsen

Just moments ago, Greenpeace’s very own Head of State arrived at the Queen’s gala dinner for real Heads of State, 120 of whom are now here for the climate talks. Our distinguished faux-world leader and her entourage entered the dinner and held up two banners reading “Politicians Talk, Leaders Act.” We’re sitting here watching coverage of the action on Danish news as I type.

They were there to represent the millions of people around the world who want a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. World leaders risk condemning the world to climate chaos if they don’t take decisive action to steer the climate negotiations in the right direction on the final day of talks.

We also projected the message " Don’t betray our children’s future" onto the Parliament building where the dinner was held.

Greenpeace projection on Danish Parliament COP15

The climate negotiations are on the verge of massive failure, but Heads of State still have just under twenty-four hours to turn the situation around. The rich world must commit to deeper emissions cuts and funding for developing country to lower their own emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change that are already being experienced. Demand leadership from rich countries by joining the over 13 million people who have already signed this petition calling for a real deal here in Copenhagen.

As a bonus, here’s a video the activists shot in their car on the way to the dinner (apparently, their car was just ahead of Hilary Clinton’s in the motorcade). This was livestreamed from a camera-phone they had with them, but it’s also kinda arty in a way.

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